2:250-E2 Immediately Available Public Records

*Public notice of each Board meeting that is posted at least 48 hours before the meeting and remains posted until the meeting is concluded

*Agenda of each regular meeting that is posted at least 48 hours before a meeting and remains posted until the meeting is concluded

Note: For school districts that do not post board meeting notices and/or agendas on a website (because they do not have a website maintained by a full time staff member), the notice and agenda must be continuously available for public review during the entire 48-hour period preceding the meeting

1. Summary of the District’s purpose
2. Functional subdivisions
3. Total amount of operating budget
4. Number and location of all of its separate offices
5. Approximate number of full- and part-time employees (see also, salary and benefits information report for the Superintendent, administrators, and teachers, District’s Statement of Affairs)
6. Identification and membership of the Board
7. Brief description of the methods whereby the public may request information and public records
8. Directory information for the Freedom of Information Officer
9. Address where requests for public records should be directed
10. Fees

The District must prominently post the list at each administrative office and make it available for inspection and copying.

The hyperlink must be easily accessible from the District’s home page.

This may be accomplished using Ill. State Board of Education (ISBE) School District Budget Form (50-36) or the summary pages from it.

The District must notify its students’ parents/guardians when the budget is web-posted along with its website address.

Annually, no more than 30 calendar days after receiving the Report Cards from the State Superintendent, the District must: (1) present them at a regular Board meeting, (2) post them on the District’s website, (3) make them available to a newspaper of general circulation serving the District, and (4) upon request, send them home to parents/guardians. 105 ILCS 5/10-17a(5).

The District also must send a written notice home to parents/guardians stating: (1) that the Report Cards are available on the website, (2) the website’s address, (3) that a printed copy will be sent upon request, and (4) the telephone number to request a printed copy. Id.

There is no statutory timeline for web posting.

Each year, in conjunction with the submission of the Statement of Affairs to ISBE, before Dec. 1, the District must submit to ISBE an annual report on all contracts over $25,000 awarded during the previous fiscal year.

The District is required to web-post this document if it has a website. If the District has no website, it must make the contract available upon request.

The District is not required to web-post this document. It must, annually by Dec. 1, submit the Statement to ISBE for posting on ISBE’s website, have copies of the Statement available in the main administrative office, and publish a summary of the Statement in a newspaper of general circulation published in the District.

*A description of the procedures that parents/guardians may use to carry out their rights under 105 ILCS 85/33(c)(1), (2), & (3) added by P.A. 101-516, including the right to:

1. Inspect and review their child’s covered information
2. Request a paper or electronic copy of their child’s covered information
3. Request corrections for factual inaccuracies contained in their child’s covered information.

The explanation of data elements of covered information must be clear and understandable by a layperson and cover the following: (1) how the District uses the covered information; (2) to whom or what entities the District discloses the covered information; and (3) for what purpose the District discloses the covered information.

The explanation of data elements and description of parent rights procedures must be updated by Jan. 31 and July 31 each year, as needed.

1. Copy of the agreement
2. Business address
3. List of any subcontractors to whom covered information may be disclosed or a link to a page on the operator’s website that clearly lists the subcontractors

The District must post new operator contracts and an explanation of the data elements of covered information disclosed to the operator (see immediate row above) within 10 business days after entering into the contract. 105 ILCS 85/27(c), added by P.A. 101-516.

This list must also be updated by Jan. 31 and July 31 each year, as needed.

1.       Number of students whose covered information was involved in the breach, unless the breach involved personal information as defined in the Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530/5, in which case the number of students involved may not be disclosed.

2.       Date, estimated date, or estimated date range of the breach

3.       Name of the operator, if applicable

The District must update breach information by January 31 and July 31 each year and it must remain on the District’s website for at least five years after the District adds it to the lists.  Breaches that occurred (or were estimated to have occurred) prior to 7-2-21 or breaches that were posted more than five years  prior to updating the current list do not need to be posted.

*Information developed as a result of the evaluation and assessment of the bullying policy’s outcomes and effectiveness

Naming only the training provider and course does not meet this requirement. The U.S. Dept. of Education (DOE) requires training materials be publicly available “so that a district’s approach to training Title IX personnel may be transparently viewed by the [district’s] educational community and the public, including for the purpose of holding a [district] accountable for using training materials that comply with [Title IX] regulations.” 85 Fed. Reg. 30254. Consult the board attorney regarding this requirement; making training materials of third-party consultants publicly available may violate their intellectual property rights. The DOE acknowledged the potential for intellectual property violations, suggesting that districts either “secure permission from the consultant to publish the training materials” or create their own training materials. 85 Fed. Reg. 30412.

The District must have an age-appropriate policy on sexual harassment (1) in the student handbook(s), (2) posted on the District’s website, and (3) posted in any other area where policies, rules and standards of conduct are posted in each school.

Annually on or before October 1: (1) the information must be presented at a regular Board meeting and posted on the District’s website, and (2) after the Board meeting at which the information was presented, the Report must be provided to ISBE.

Within 72 hours of Board approval, the District must post: (1) the name/title of person receiving payment under the severance agreement, (2) the amount of payment, (3) that the employee or contractor was found to have engaged in sexual harassment or sexual discrimination, as applicable, and (4) the date, time, and location of the meeting at which the agreement was approved.

Note: The Government Severance Pay Act (GSPA), 5 ILCS 415/10(a)(2), prohibits an employee of a school district with contract provisions for severance pay from receiving any severance if he or she is fired for misconduct by the board, which includes sexual harassment and/or discrimination. Id. at 415/5. For more discussion about the reconciling these laws, see f/n 6 in policy 2:260, Uniform Grievance Procedure.

The report must be posted within six business days after the District approves a budget.  The District may choose to post a physical copy of this information at its principal office in lieu of posting the information directly on the website in which case it must post directions on the website for accessing that information.

The Ill. Attorney General’s office has not provided guidance concerning whether this requirement applies to employees who do not participate in IMRF, e.g., Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) participants.

The Ill. Attorney General’s office has not provided guidance concerning whether this requirement applies to employees who do not participate in IMRF, e.g., TRS participants.

The report must be posted at least six days before the District approves an employee’s total compensation package that is equal to or in excess of $150,000. The District may choose to post a physical copy of this information at its principal office in lieu of posting the information directly on the website in which case it must post directions on the website for accessing that information.

105 ILCS 5/10-16a, amended by P.A. 102-638, eff. 1-1-23, requires the District to post on its website the names of all Board members who have completed professional development leadership training. The web-posting may be expanded to log all Board members’ training and development activities.

5 ILCS 120/1.05(b) and (c) require each Board member to complete training on the Open Meetings Act. After completing the training, each Board member must file a copy of their certificate of completion with the Board.

105 ILCS 5/24-16.5 requires each Board member to complete a training program on performance evaluations before voting on a dismissal based on a performance evaluation pursuant to the Performance Evaluation Reform Act.

By Dec. 1, the District must annually make the immunization data that it must report to ISBE each year publicly available. The data, not its format, must be identical to the data reported to ISBE. Boards have control over the method(s) used to make this data publicly available. One method is to instruct the reader to ask for the data directly from ISBE.

These must be made available to parents and/or guardians through the District’s Internet website or paper handouts.

1. Notification to students and parents of the opportunities for registered apprenticeships, which includes the following statements:
   1. Students may participate in any registered apprenticeship program listed by the District and
   2. Students may find a registered, but not listed, apprenticeship program with a business or organization, if a registered apprenticeship program is not offered in the District.
2. Board policy 6:310, High School Credit for Non-District Experiences; Course Substitutions; Re-Entering Students (specifically, the section titled Registered Apprenticeship Program).
3. A form for a parent/guardian to request that when their child successfully completes a registered apprenticeship program, it be substituted for a course.