Illinois

Amends the Fire Protection District Act. Provides that a fire protection district organized under the Act may appeal to the State Fire Marshal if a county denies a request for multiple access points to a new fire station. Provides that the fire protection district shall provide the State Fire Marshal with evidence of why multiple access point are required. Provides that the county may offer evidence to the State Fire Marshal that shows the specific reasons for denying a request for multiple access points. Provides that, unless the State Fire Marshal approves of the fire protection district's appeal, the county retains full authority over access points. Provides that neither the county or the fire protection district may appeal the State Fire Marshal's decision. Amends the State Fire Marshal Act. Requires the State Fire Marshal to issue a binding decision on a fire protection district's appeal under the Fire Protection District Act within 90 days of receiving the appeal, unless the Fire Marshal requests additional information.

Amends the Bill of Rights for Children. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Illinois Controlled Substances Act. Provides that interstate data sharing agreements shall be mutual. Provides that the Department of Human Services shall only share data if the reciprocal state provides the opportunity to access data from the reciprocating state to licensed healthcare entities and application vendors regardless of their method of connection to the Prescription Monitoring Program for interstate data sharing as defined in administrative rule. Effective immediately.

Amends the State Universities Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Provides that a Tier 2 member who has at least 20 years of service in this system as a police officer or firefighter is entitled to a retirement annuity upon written application on or after the attainment of age 55 (instead of age 60) if a specified rule is applicable to the participant. Provides that the changes apply retroactively to January 1, 2011. Provides that any benefit increase that results from the amendatory Act is excluded from the definition of "new benefit increase".

Amends the Child Care Act of 1969. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Technology Development Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title of the Act.

Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Provides that it is an unlawful practice for any person to engage in a commercial transaction or trade practice with a consumer in which: (1) the consumer is communicating or otherwise interacting with a chatbot, artificial intelligence agent, avatar, or other computer technology that engages in a textual or aural conversation; (2) the communication may mislead or deceive a reasonable consumer to believe that the consumer is communicating with a human representative; and (3) the consumer is not notified in a clear and conspicuous manner that the consumer is communicating with an artificial intelligence system and not a human representative. Effective January 1, 2026.

Amends the Private Business and Vocational Schools Act of 2012. Provides that an educational institution that offers instruction or programs of study for which the participant or student is not charged any tuition or fees other than a nominal fee to cover the costs of books, tools, and similar materials shall not be considered a private business and vocational school.

Amends the Council of State Governments Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Budget Stabilization Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Prevention of Tobacco Use by Persons under 21 Years of Age and Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Provides that any person may file a petition to vacate a conviction or sentence, regardless of criminal custody status or citizenship or immigration status, as defined in the Illinois TRUST Act, if the person asserts that: (1) the conviction or sentence is legally invalid due to prejudicial error damaging the petitioner's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a conviction or sentence; or (2) newly discovered evidence of actual innocence exists that requires vacation of the conviction or sentence as a matter of law or in the interests of justice. Provides that such a petition shall be deemed timely filed at any time notwithstanding any other provision of law. Provides that the time limitations for petitions filed in the trial court under the Post-Conviction Hearing Article of the Code do not apply to a petition filed under this provision. Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Provides that a provision granting relief from a final order or judgment entered based on a plea of guilty or nolo contendere and that has potential consequences under federal immigration law applies to orders or judgments entered before, on, or after the effective date of the amendatory Act.

Amends the Childhood Hunger Relief Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Public Utilities Act. Provides that every cable or video provider operating in the State shall issue a prorated bill credit to consumers for any service outage lasting more than one hour. Provides that the credit shall be calculated based on the consumer's monthly service rate, prorated for the duration of the outage, and that the credit shall be automatically applied to the consumer's next billing cycle without requiring any action or request from the consumer. Requires cable or video providers to notify consumers of the outage and the applied credit within 24 hours after the restoration of service. Provides that internet providers and cable or video providers shall maintain records of all outages and corresponding bill credits issued for a minimum period of 3 years. Provides that the records shall be made available to the Illinois Commerce Commission upon request for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the Act. Provides that any cable or video provider that fails to issue the required bill credits in accordance with the outage provisions shall be subject to penalties as determined by the Commission. Provides that, if, due to a contract dispute, a cable or video provider will not be providing a consumer with a channel for which the consumer has been or will be billed, the cable or video provider shall, within 10 days after the cable or video provider knows that the contract dispute will result in the loss of the channel, provide each affected consumer with notice that the channel will not be provided due to a contract dispute. Provides that, if a cable or video provider does not provide a consumer with a channel for which the consumer has been billed, then the cable or video provider shall credit the consumer an amount equal to the percentage of the consumer's bill that the channel represents multiplied by the consumer's monthly service rate, which shall be prorated for each hour that the consumer was not provided with that channel due to a contract dispute. Requires that the credit be applied on the statement issued to the consumer for the next monthly billing cycle.

Amends the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Act. Changes the Statewide Committee quorum from 7 voting members to a simple majority of voting members. Requires that Statewide Committee's annual report is due no later than September 1 instead of March 1 of each year. Requires that the biennial report is due no later than June 1 instead of April 1 of each odd year.

Creates the Illinois Appliance Standards Act. Directs the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to adopt minimum efficiency standards for covered products. Provides for testing, certification, and labeling of covered products. Contains provisions concerning enforcement of the Act's requirements. Provides for administrative rulemaking by the Agency. Makes findings. Defines terms.

Designates Illinois Route 84 from 1030 Viaduct Road (south point) to U.S. 52 (intersection of Chicago Avenue and Viaduct Road) in Savanna as the "Chris James Memorial Highway".

Amends the Educator Licensure Article of the School Code. In a provision regarding endorsements on Professional Educator Licenses, provides for a special education endorsement in the area of deaf-hard of hearing with sign proficiency.

Makes appropriations for the ordinary and contingent expenses of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026, as follows: Other State Funds $4,465,600.

Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Amusement Ride and Attraction Safety Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities Act. Changes the name of the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired to the Illinois School for the Blind. Makes conforming changes to the Personnel Code, the School Code, the School Safety Drill Act, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, and the MRSA Prevention, Control, and Reporting Act.

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that if the county jail located in the county where the committed person was residing immediately before his or her conviction for the offense for which he or she is serving sentence in the Department of Corrections has a reentry program for committed persons, the Department of Corrections shall reimburse the county for any expenses incurred in the transfer of the committed person to the sheriff of the county where the reentry program is located, including the housing of the committed person transferred to the reentry program.

Amends the Technology Advancement and Development Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title.

Amends the State Treasurer Act. Provides that qualified expenses related to special needs services include elementary and secondary school expenses incurred as a result of a recognized disability or an individualized education program. Makes conforming changes to the definition of "eligible educational institution". Defines "recognized disability" as a physical, developmental, or learning disability recognized by the State Board of Education.