The Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force was created to ensure that public schools meet the needs of the children and communities. Families felt that Chicago Public School districts were not addressing their concerns when making sudden school closures. A child could be redirected to a school miles from their home instead of one a few blocks away. There did not seem to be a sensible process for placing children in new schools. Now the community will have a seat at the table to address these problems by creating a student transfer plan.

Public Act 97-0474 (Senate Bill 630) will open the process of transferring students to new schools in Chicago Public School districts to address overcrowding quicker, helping ease the stress on teachers and students.

A priority of mine this year was to focus on disparities facing under-privileged African-American communities. In my district, many communities are seeing disproportionate arrests in low-level, non-violent drug related crimes, which has lead to over-population in our prisons. Unfortunately, recidivism rates in these communities are well beyond the rates of Caucasian communities due to lack of proper rehabilitation. This year I sponsored legislation which focuses on rehabilitation practices as an alternative to imprisonment and institutionalization and three of those measures have been signed into law:

Public Act 97-0360 (House Bill 1547) creates the Commission to End the Disparities Facing the African-American Community, which will produce an initial report to the Governor and the General Assembly on the disparities facing African-Americans in education, health care, health care services, employment, criminal justice, and other economic and social issues.

Public Act 97-0443 (Senate Bill 2271) creates the Racial and Ethnic Impact Research Task Force to determine the best method to collect and analyze racial and ethnic identity data from arrests in order to create a Racial and Ethnic Impact Statement for Illinois’ criminal laws. This impact statement would ensure that criminal laws in our state will not have a disproportionate impact on certain ethnic groups.

Public Act 97-0253 (House Bill 2048) allows the State’s Attorney’s Office to use money from the sale proceeds of forfeited and seized items to make grants to local substance abuse treatment facilities and half-way houses.

To hold government accountable, the General Assembly has focused much attention to legislation that will help to streamline government programs to efficiently use taxpayers’ dollars. In an effort to eliminate wasteful spending, I sponsored initiatives this year to restructure the billing and process requirements for our Human Services, Public Health, and Health and Human Services agencies. Four bills I sponsored this year have been signed into law:

Public Act 97-0048 (Senate Bill 1784) enables the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to increase efficiencies by eliminating duplicative services, streamlining the payment process, ensuring federal compliance, and promoting administrative efficiencies through technical changes within its Medical Assistance Programs.

Public Act 97-0052 (Senate Bill 1894) eliminates the requirement in the Nursing Home Care Act that the Department of Public Health seek the advice of the Department of Human Services in devising minimum standards for such individuals when licensing any facility for persons with a disability.

Public Act 97-0172 (House Bill 1656) requires the Department of Healthcare and Family Services in conjunction with the Department of Human Services to report to the General Assembly by January 1, 2012 on the feasibility and potential consequences of centralizing the administrative functions of medical assistance applications, to the extent allowed by federal law.

Public Act 97-0400 (House Bill 700) will limit the use of Social Security Numbers when state agencies license professionals. A new licensee is required to provide his or her Social Security Number when applying for a professional license. Under the new law, agencies will be required to assign that person a customer identification number to be used on any subsequent application or license renewal. It explicitly prohibits the Social Security Number from appearing on the face of the license.

Small businesses in Illinois are the backbone of our economy and we must ensure that we are using local, tax-paying businesses to rebuild and grow. Small businesses take pride in their product and we thank them for continuing to provide their services to the people of Illinois. I sponsored a measure to help small business that was signed into law this year:

Public Act 97-0307 (House Bill 3186) creates the Small Business Contract Act, which sets a goal of awarding ten percent of State contracts to small businesses. The bill also mandates that State agencies must provide an annual compliance plan outlining goals to contract with small businesses for each fiscal year. Agencies must also include an annual report on the utilization of the contracts with small businesses and a self-evaluation of efforts to meet their goals.

Finally, an ongoing passion for me has been creating and maintaining a lottery game from which all the proceeds go to breast cancer funding. We have been very successful with the Ticket for the Cure lottery ticket since its inception in 2006, and its popularity continues to grow. I sponsored a measure that was recently signed into law that implements changes into the Ticket for the Cure program and expands the timeline of the game:

Public Act 97-0092 (Senate Bill 1279) extends the Ticket for the Cure lottery game to December 31, 2016. In addition, the measure renames the lottery ticket as Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure and the fund as Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure Grant Fund, and reorganizes the advisory board. Money in the Carolyn Adams Ticket for the Cure Grant Fund is distributed to the Department of Public Health to provide grants to fund research and education, promote awareness of breast cancer, and provide services for breast cancer victims.

This year I introduced a measure in response to a 2010 outbreak of pertussis, better known as whooping cough, which is an illness that can be prevented by proper immunization. Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory disease that is spread through coughing and sneezing. Most children are immunized at a young age, but the immunization wears down near adolescence.

Public Act 97-0494 (House Bill 1707) requires the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to work with the Department of Public Health (DPH) to raise awareness about immunizations for all infectious diseases. The measure also requires DCFS to provide up-to-date information on its website about the benefits of immunization and updates on immunization practices. The bill also requires DCFS to provide information about adult vaccines to people who work closely with young children.

Many individuals have several medical care providers that are associated with the different specialties that either they or their insurance provider requires. Without pharmaceutical disclosure for their patients, medical providers could potentially prescribe something to a patient that can lead to a harmful cross reaction with a drug that patient is already prescribed.

Public Act 97-0515 (Senate Bill 1234) will help disclose pharmaceutical information between physicians, therapists and care providers to prevent drug to drug interactions, especially in the case of emergency. The measure is an initiative of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.