Rep. David A. Welter

Amends the Children and Family Services Act. Requires the Department of Children and Family Services to place a locked suggestion box in each group home, shelter, and transitional living arrangement that accepts youth in care for placement by the Department. Requires the Department to submit a report to the General Assembly each year outlining the issues and concerns submitted to the locked suggestion box and the solution to each issue and concern.

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that a person also commits aggravated battery when, in committing a battery, other than by the discharge of a firearm, he or she knowingly causes great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to an individual whom the person knows to be a person working under the Adult Protective Services Program or an Ombudsman under the State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program of the Department on Aging, Department of Children and Family Services employee: (1) performing his or her official duties; (2) battered to prevent performance of his or her official duties; or (3) battered in retaliation for performing his or her official duties. Provides that a violation is a Class 1 felony. Provides that a person also commits aggravated battery when, in committing a battery, other than by discharge of a firearm, he or she knows the individual battered to be a person working under the Adult Protective Services Program or an Ombudsman under the State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program of the Department on Aging, Department of Children and Family Services employee: (1) performing his or her official duties; (2) battered to prevent performance of his or her official duties; or (3) battered in retaliation for performing his or her official duties. Provides that a violation is a Class 2 felony. Defines "Department of Children and Family Services employee".

Amends the Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997 of the Public Utilities Act. In provisions concerning infrastructure investment and modernization: Provides that beginning in 2022, a participating utility other than a combination utility shall pay $10,000,000 per year for 5 years and a participating utility that is a combination utility shall pay $1,000,000 per year for 10 years to the energy low-income and support program, which is intended to fund customer assistance programs with the primary purpose being avoidance of imminent disconnection and reconnecting customers who have been disconnected for nonpayment and makes conforming changes. Makes a change concerning the computation of the performance-based formula rate beginning with the rates applicable for the rate year commencing January 1, 2023, and each rate year thereafter. Removes provisions requiring that, by December 31, 2017, the Illinois Commerce Commission shall prepare and file with the General Assembly a report on the infrastructure program and the performance-based formula rate; provisions making the infrastructure investment and modernization, Smart Grid Advanced Metering Infrastructure Deployment Plan, Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Trust, and Illinois Smart Grid test bed provisions inoperative after December 31, 2022; and provisions limiting the ability of a participating utility to annually update the performance-based formula rate. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Designates U.S. Route 20 westbound, just west of Illinois Route 75 in Stephenson County, as the "Trooper Brooke Jones-Story Memorial Highway". House Floor Amendment No. 1 Changes what is being named in Trooper Brook Jones-Story's honor from a highway to an overpass.

Amends the Downstate Teachers and State Universities Articles of the Illinois Pension Code. Requires an employer to make an additional employer contribution for a participant whose earnings for any academic year used to determine the final rate of earnings exceed the amount of his or her earnings with the same employer for the previous academic year by more than 6% (instead of 3%). Makes conforming changes. Effective immediately.

Amends the Educator Licensure Article of the School Code. Provides that, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, an applicant seeking a Professional Educator License or an Educator License with Stipulations who holds a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education is not required to pass a test of basic skills to be issued that license. Makes conforming changes. Effective immediately.

Declares April 2019 as Ambucs Appreciation Month in the State of Illinois.

Declares September 7, 2019 as Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Appreciation Day in Illinois.

Amends the Illinois Income Tax Act. Provides a tax credit to each taxpayer who owns qualified real property located in a county in Illinois that was declared a State disaster area by the Governor. Effective immediately.

Amends the School Code. With regard to the prerequisites to receiving a high school diploma, provides that a pupil must complete one year chosen from music, art, foreign language, vocational education, or speech (rather than music, art, foreign language, or vocational education).