Text of IL HB 4241 (2026)

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 HB4241 Introduced , by Rep. Jed Davis SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED: New Act 105 ILCS 5/27A-5 Creates the School Book Rating and Transparency Act. Requires a publisher supplying books to a public or nonpublic school, including a charter school, or a school-sponsored book fair to assign a content rating to each book and provide that content rating. Provides that each school shall ensure that the content rating is displayed in at least one of the following locations: (1) the school library's online catalog entry; (2) the school library's website; (3) the classroom library's catalog or posted list; (4) printed or digital reading lists distributed to students; or (5) signage or catalogs displayed at a school-sponsored book fair. Requires the State Board of Education to develop and publish a one-page rating key, and requires a school to make the rating key available. Provides that no teacher, school librarian, school administrator, or school district employee is subject to liability, discipline, or adverse employment action for relying in good faith on publisher-provided content ratings. Requires the State Board to submit an annual report to the General Assembly containing an assessment of publisher compliance and any recommendations for system improvements. Authorizes the State Board to adopt any rules necessary to implement the Act. Amends the School Code to make a related change. Effective July 1, 2026. LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT MAY APPLY A BILL FOR HB4241LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 AN ACT concerning education. 2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 3represented in the General Assembly: 4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the School 5Book Rating and Transparency Act. 6 Section 5. Purpose; construction. 7 (a) The purpose of this Act is to provide parents, 8guardians, and educators with clear, consistent, and 9age-appropriate information regarding the content of books 10available to students through school libraries, classroom 11libraries, curriculum lists, and school-sponsored book fairs. 12 (b) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to: 13 (1) remove, ban, restrict, limit access to, or 14 prohibit the use of any book; 15 (2) authorize a publisher to restrict or condition the 16 sale of any book; 17 (3) require a school to limit access to any book; or 18 (4) authorize censorship, removal, or suppression of 19 any material. 20 Section 10. Applicability. This Act applies only to books 21acquired, purchased, or newly added to school collections 22after the effective date of this Act that are included in: HB4241- 2 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 (1) school libraries; 2 (2) classroom libraries; 3 (3) required or suggested reading lists; 4 (4) digital or online reading platforms authorized by 5 a school; and 6 (5) school-sponsored book fairs. 7 Section 15. Definitions. As used in this Act: 8 "Age band" means one of the following recommended age 9categories: 10 (1) E (Everyone). 11 (2) 10+. 12 (3) 13+. 13 (4) 16+. 14 (5) 18+ or Mature. 15 "Book" means any print or bound material, graphic novel, 16illustrated work, or similar item offered to students through 17a school library, classroom library, required reading list, or 18school-sponsored book fair. 19 "Content flag" means one or more descriptors identifying 20specific categories of sensitive content, including any of the 21following: 22 (1) SC - sexual content. 23 (2) GC - graphic sexual content; 24 (3) SL - sexual language. 25 (4) V - violence. HB4241- 3 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 (5) GV - graphic violence. 2 (6) D - drug or alcohol use. 3 (7) ST - sensitive or disturbing themes. 4 (8) L - strong or repeated profanity. 5 "Content rating" means the combined age band and content 6flags assigned to a book under this Act. 7 "Graphic sexual content" means explicit, detailed, or 8anatomically specific descriptions of sexual acts, sexualized 9touching, sexual manipulation, or sexualized anatomy, 10including sensory or physical details that depict sexual 11activity in a vivid, realistic, or emotionally evocative 12manner. 13 "Publisher" means any entity that produces, distributes, 14or supplies books for sale or use in schools, including book 15fair vendors. 16 "School" means any public or nonpublic elementary or 17secondary school in this State, including a charter school. 18 "School-sponsored book fair" means any book sale, literacy 19event, or similar activity held on school property or 20facilitated by a school in which books are offered for sale or 21displayed to students. 22 "Sexual content" means nongraphic references to or 23depictions of romantic or sexual themes, including nonexplicit 24descriptions of affection, relationships, dating, sexual 25orientation, or implied sexual activity that does not describe 26sexual acts or anatomy in detail. HB4241- 4 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 Section 20. Publisher content rating requirement. 2 (a) A publisher supplying books to a school or a 3school-sponsored book fair shall assign a content rating to 4each book. 5 (b) A publisher under subsection (a) shall provide the 6content rating for a book to: 7 (1) the purchasing school or school district; 8 (2) the vendor operating the school-sponsored book 9 fair; or 10 (3) the school receiving donated books. 11 (c) A publisher shall use objective, good-faith criteria 12consistent with the definitions in this Act in assigning a 13content rating under subsection (a). 14 Section 25. Display of ratings. Each school shall ensure 15that the content rating for a book under Section 20 is 16displayed in at least one of the following locations: 17 (1) the school library's online catalog entry; 18 (2) the school library's website; 19 (3) the classroom library's catalog or posted list; 20 (4) printed or digital reading lists distributed to 21 students; or 22 (5) signage or catalogs displayed at a 23 school-sponsored book fair. 24 A school is not required to affix a label to the physical HB4241- 5 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1book under this Section. 2 Section 30. Rating key. 3 (a) The State Board of Education shall develop and publish 4a one-page rating key explaining: 5 (1) each age band; 6 (2) each content flag; 7 (3) the definitions in this Act; and 8 (4) the informational nature of the system under this 9 Act. 10 (b) A school shall: 11 (1) make the State Board's rating key available on the 12 school district's or school's website; 13 (2) post the rating key in the school library; 14 (3) include the rating key in any digital library 15 catalogs; and 16 (4) make the rating key available to parents upon 17 request. 18 Section 35. Protections for educators. No teacher, school 19librarian, school administrator, or school district employee 20is subject to liability, discipline, or adverse employment 21action for relying in good faith on publisher-provided content 22ratings under this Act. 23 Section 40. Reporting. The State Board of Education shall HB4241- 6 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1submit an annual report not to exceed 3 pages to the General 2Assembly containing an assessment of publisher compliance and 3any recommendations for system improvements under this Act. 4 Section 90. Rulemaking. The State Board of Education may 5adopt any rules necessary to implement this Act. 6 Section 95. The School Code is amended by changing Section 727A-5 as follows: 8 (105 ILCS 5/27A-5) 9 Sec. 27A-5. Charter school; legal entity; requirements. 10 (a) A charter school shall be a public, nonsectarian, 11nonreligious, non-home based, and non-profit school. A charter 12school shall be organized and operated as a nonprofit 13corporation or other discrete, legal, nonprofit entity 14authorized under the laws of the State of Illinois. 15 (b) A charter school may be established under this Article 16by creating a new school or by converting an existing public 17school or attendance center to charter school status. In all 18new applications to establish a charter school in a city 19having a population exceeding 500,000, operation of the 20charter school shall be limited to one campus. This limitation 21does not apply to charter schools existing or approved on or 22before April 16, 2003. 23 (b-5) (Blank). HB4241- 7 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 (c) A charter school shall be administered and governed by 2its board of directors or other governing body in the manner 3provided in its charter. The governing body of a charter 4school shall be subject to the Freedom of Information Act and 5the Open Meetings Act. A charter school's board of directors 6or other governing body must include at least one parent or 7guardian of a pupil currently enrolled in the charter school 8who may be selected through the charter school or a charter 9network election, appointment by the charter school's board of 10directors or other governing body, or by the charter school's 11Parent Teacher Organization or its equivalent. 12 (c-5) No later than January 1, 2021 or within the first 13year of his or her first term, every voting member of a charter 14school's board of directors or other governing body shall 15complete a minimum of 4 hours of professional development 16leadership training to ensure that each member has sufficient 17familiarity with the board's or governing body's role and 18responsibilities, including financial oversight and 19accountability of the school, evaluating the principal's and 20school's performance, adherence to the Freedom of Information 21Act and the Open Meetings Act, and compliance with education 22and labor law. In each subsequent year of his or her term, a 23voting member of a charter school's board of directors or 24other governing body shall complete a minimum of 2 hours of 25professional development training in these same areas. The 26training under this subsection may be provided or certified by HB4241- 8 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1a statewide charter school membership association or may be 2provided or certified by other qualified providers approved by 3the State Board. 4 (d) For purposes of this subsection (d), "non-curricular 5health and safety requirement" means any health and safety 6requirement created by statute or rule to provide, maintain, 7preserve, or safeguard safe or healthful conditions for 8students and school personnel or to eliminate, reduce, or 9prevent threats to the health and safety of students and 10school personnel. "Non-curricular health and safety 11requirement" does not include any course of study or 12specialized instructional requirement for which the State 13Board has established goals and learning standards or which is 14designed primarily to impart knowledge and skills for students 15to master and apply as an outcome of their education. 16 A charter school shall comply with all non-curricular 17health and safety requirements applicable to public schools 18under the laws of the State of Illinois. The State Board shall 19promulgate and post on its Internet website a list of 20non-curricular health and safety requirements that a charter 21school must meet. The list shall be updated annually no later 22than September 1. Any charter contract between a charter 23school and its authorizer must contain a provision that 24requires the charter school to follow the list of all 25non-curricular health and safety requirements promulgated by 26the State Board and any non-curricular health and safety HB4241- 9 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1requirements added by the State Board to such list during the 2term of the charter. Nothing in this subsection (d) precludes 3an authorizer from including non-curricular health and safety 4requirements in a charter school contract that are not 5contained in the list promulgated by the State Board, 6including non-curricular health and safety requirements of the 7authorizing local school board. 8 (e) Except as otherwise provided in the School Code, a 9charter school shall not charge tuition; provided that a 10charter school may charge reasonable fees for textbooks, 11instructional materials, and student activities. 12 (f) A charter school shall be responsible for the 13management and operation of its fiscal affairs, including, but 14not limited to, the preparation of its budget. An audit of each 15charter school's finances shall be conducted annually by an 16outside, independent contractor retained by the charter 17school. The contractor shall not be an employee of the charter 18school or affiliated with the charter school or its authorizer 19in any way, other than to audit the charter school's finances. 20To ensure financial accountability for the use of public 21funds, on or before December 1 of every year of operation, each 22charter school shall submit to its authorizer and the State 23Board a copy of its audit and a copy of the Form 990 the 24charter school filed that year with the federal Internal 25Revenue Service. In addition, if deemed necessary for proper 26financial oversight of the charter school, an authorizer may HB4241- 10 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1require quarterly financial statements from each charter 2school. 3 (g) A charter school shall comply with all provisions of 4this Article, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, 5all federal and State laws and rules applicable to public 6schools that pertain to special education and the instruction 7of English learners, and its charter. A charter school is 8exempt from all other State laws and regulations in this Code 9governing public schools and local school board policies; 10however, a charter school is not exempt from the following: 11 (1) Sections 10-21.9 and 34-18.5 of this Code 12 regarding criminal history records checks and checks of 13 the Statewide Sex Offender Database and Statewide Murderer 14 and Violent Offender Against Youth Database of applicants 15 for employment; 16 (2) Sections 10-20.14, 10-22.6, 22-100, 24-24, 34-19, 17 and 34-84a of this Code regarding discipline of students; 18 (3) the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees 19 Tort Immunity Act; 20 (4) Section 108.75 of the General Not For Profit 21 Corporation Act of 1986 regarding indemnification of 22 officers, directors, employees, and agents; 23 (5) the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act; 24 (5.5) subsection (b) of Section 10-23.12 and 25 subsection (b) of Section 34-18.6 of this Code; 26 (6) the Illinois School Student Records Act; HB4241- 11 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 (7) Section 10-17a of this Code regarding school 2 report cards; 3 (8) the P-20 Longitudinal Education Data System Act; 4 (9) Section 22-110 of this Code regarding bullying 5 prevention; 6 (10) Section 2-3.162 of this Code regarding student 7 discipline reporting; 8 (11) Sections 22-80 and 22-105 of this Code; 9 (12) Sections 10-20.60 and 34-18.53 of this Code; 10 (13) Sections 10-20.63 and 34-18.56 of this Code; 11 (14) Sections 22-90 and 26-18 of this Code; 12 (15) Section 22-30 of this Code; 13 (16) Sections 24-12 and 34-85 of this Code; 14 (17) the Seizure Smart School Act; 15 (18) Section 2-3.64a-10 of this Code; 16 (19) Sections 10-20.73 and 34-21.9 of this Code; 17 (20) Section 10-22.25b of this Code; 18 (21) Section 27-1015 of this Code; 19 (22) Section 27-1010 of this Code; 20 (23) Section 34-18.8 of this Code; 21 (24) Article 26A of this Code; 22 (25) Section 2-3.188 of this Code; 23 (26) Section 22-85.5 of this Code; 24 (27) subsections (d-10), (d-15), and (d-20) of Section 25 10-20.56 of this Code; 26 (28) Sections 10-20.83 and 34-18.78 of this Code; HB4241- 12 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1 (29) Section 10-20.13 of this Code; 2 (30) (blank); 3 (31) Section 34-21.6 of this Code; 4 (32) Section 22-85.10 of this Code; 5 (33) Section 2-3.196 of this Code; 6 (34) Section 22-95 of this Code; 7 (35) Section 34-18.62 of this Code; 8 (36) the Illinois Human Rights Act; 9 (37) Section 2-3.204 of this Code; and 10 (38) Section 22-106 22-105 of this Code; and . 11 (39) the School Book Rating and Transparency Act. 12 The change made by Public Act 96-104 to this subsection 13(g) is declaratory of existing law. 14 (h) A charter school may negotiate and contract with a 15school district, the governing body of a State college or 16university or public community college, or any other public or 17for-profit or nonprofit private entity for: (i) the use of a 18school building and grounds or any other real property or 19facilities that the charter school desires to use or convert 20for use as a charter school site, (ii) the operation and 21maintenance thereof, and (iii) the provision of any service, 22activity, or undertaking that the charter school is required 23to perform in order to carry out the terms of its charter. 24Except as provided in subsection (i) of this Section, a school 25district may charge a charter school reasonable rent for the 26use of the district's buildings, grounds, and facilities. Any HB4241- 13 -LRB104 16741 LNS 30148 b 1services for which a charter school contracts with a school 2district shall be provided by the district at cost. Any 3services for which a charter school contracts with a local 4school board or with the governing body of a State college or 5university or public community college shall be provided by 6the public entity at cost. 7 (i) In no event shall a charter school that is established 8by converting an existing school or attendance center to 9charter school status be required to pay rent for space that is 10deemed available, as negotiated and provided in the charter 11agreement, in school district facilities. However, all other 12costs for the operation and maintenance of school district 13facilities that are used by the charter school shall be 14subject to negotiation between the charter school and the 15local school board and shall be set forth in the charter. 16 (j) A charter school may limit student enrollment by age 17or grade level. 18 (k) If the charter school is authorized by the State 19Board, then the charter school is its own local education 20agency. 21(Source: P.A. 103-154, eff. 6-30-23; 103-175, eff. 6-30-23; 22103-472, eff. 8-1-24; 103-605, eff. 7-1-24; 103-641, eff. 237-1-24; 103-806, eff. 1-1-25; 104-288, eff. 1-1-26; 104-391, 24eff. 8-15-25; 104-417, eff. 8-15-25; revised 9-12-25.) 25 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1, 262026.