Takeaway: Public bodies should treat a FOIA request as “received” the moment it enters their email system, not when it is discovered after being quarantined, filtered, or otherwise delayed internally. To avoid missing...more
2/6/2026
/ Appellate Courts ,
Deadlines ,
Email ,
Email Policies ,
FOIA ,
Government Agencies ,
Information Governance ,
Public Agencies ,
Records Request ,
State and Local Government ,
Statutory Deadlines ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Third-Party Service Provider
Takeaway: The PAC held that a village board violated the Open Meetings Act by improperly interfering with a resident’s public comment, including by prohibiting her from naming trustees and prematurely cutting off her remarks....more
On November 21, 2025, the Governor signed into law a bill that modifies the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), the Open Meetings Act (“OMA”), and the Local Records Act. Now referred to as Public Act 104-0438 (the “Act”),...more
12/8/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Election Laws ,
FOIA ,
Information Governance ,
New Legislation ,
Open Meetings Act ,
Phishing Scams ,
Public Policy ,
Public Records ,
State and Local Government ,
Transparency
Over the last few weeks, the Public Access Counselor of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office (PAC) issued two binding decisions addressing issues arising from the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA). In Public Access Opinion...more
On August 1, 2024, the Racism-Free Schools Law went into effect. As we previously reported, the Racism-Free Schools Law established several requirements for Illinois school districts, charter schools, and nonpublic,...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which governs federal districts in the West/Northwest, recently held that a California school board member violated the First Amendment when blocking users’ ability to access...more
Legislation passed earlier this month requires some school boards in Cook County to act swiftly in a changing landscape related to school treasurers. At issue are “township trustees of schools” offices and their treasurers –...more
Thanks to a recent legislative change, the campaign season for those wishing to run for the school board now begins about a month earlier. Historically, the window set forth in the Election Code for filing nominating...more
Early this year, the Illinois Appellate Court issued an opinion responding to challenges asserted under the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Appellate Court held that the Village of Oak...more
1/23/2024
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Budgets ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Employees ,
Firemen ,
FOIA ,
Open Meetings Act ,
Public Access Laws ,
Public Hearing ,
Public Meetings ,
State and Local Government ,
Statutory Violations
As we detailed in a prior alert, Section 10-20.21 of the School Code was amended to increase the competitive bidding threshold from $25,000 to $35,000. The amendments went into effect January 1, 2024....more
This school year has begun with a number of changes related to teacher tenure, evaluations, and dismissals. On August 4, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 103-0500, revising the Illinois School Code...more
Governor Pritzker recently signed P.A. 103-0491 (previously SB 1570) into law, which will allow school districts to enter into design-build contracts—as opposed to the currently available design-bid-build delivery...more
8/22/2023
/ Construction Contracts ,
Construction Project ,
Design-Bid-Build ,
Design-Build ,
Illinois ,
New Legislation ,
Project Delivery Methods ,
Public Acts ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Request for Proposals ,
School Districts
The new legal requirements under Erin’s Law and Faith’s Law will be in full effect as schools begin the 2023-2024 school year. As we have previously reported, under new School Code amendments made by Faith’s Law and Erin’s...more
As we announced on our blog last week, Governor Pritzker’s COVID-19 disaster proclamation ended on May 11. This signals the end of optional remote attendance at meetings and a return to pre-COVID era requirements for remote...more
In a previous alert, we announced that the Illinois State Police (ISP) would be transitioning to accepting clear and present danger reports from school officials through its online Law Enforcement Portal. To make reports on...more
While public school districts have been aware of the fingerprint-based criminal background check requirements for new employees for some time, the hiring process for the 2023-2024 school year is going to look different for...more
A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that school officials did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when disciplining them for off-campus social media posts that amounted to severe harassment...more
1/18/2023
/ Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Educational Institutions ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Hate Speech ,
Mahanoy Area School District v B.L. ,
School Districts ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Media ,
Student Speech ,
Students ,
Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School Dist.