New Legislation Protects Well-Being of Children and Persons with Disabilities

Three bills that the Illinois General Assembly recently passed help protect the health and safety of children and persons with disabilities. A fourth bill, which the General Assembly also passed, provides for debt relief for the portion of child support arrearages that low-income parents owe the state, not the family. The bills now await Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s signature.

S.B. 2738: Persons found unfit to have a child

Senate Bill 2738 amends the definition of “unfit person” in the Adoption Act. The bill makes it more difficult for a parent who has committed certain crimes against any child to have a child. Such a parent is assumed unfit unless the parent can prove otherwise by clear and convincing evidence. A parent is unfit if there are two or more findings of physical abuse under the Juvenile Court Act regarding any children, if the parent is convicted or found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of a child by physical abuse, or if against the parent there is a finding of physical child abuse resulting in the death of a child under the Juvenile Court Act.

S.B. 2162: Custody or visitation of sex offenders

Senate Bill 2162 amends the Illinois Parentage Act of 1984 to prohibit certain persons from custody or visitation of a child unless the mother or the child’s guardian consents to the custody or visitation. Such persons are those who father a child as a result of sexual relations within a family, criminal sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, criminal sexual abuse, or aggravated criminal sexual abuse and are convicted or plead guilty to any of the these charges. This does not relieve fathers of any support obligations to their children.

S.B. 3018: Sexual misconduct toward persons with disabilities

Senate Bill 3018 amends the Criminal Code of 1961 by adding as an offense sexual misconduct with a person with a developmental disability or mental illness. Sexual misconduct occurs when (1) the offender is an employee and knowingly engages in sexual conduct or sexual penetration with a person who has a disability and is under the care and custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) at a state-operated facility or (2) the offender is an employee of an IDHS-funded community agency and knowingly engages in sexual misconduct with a person who has a disability and is in a community-agency-operated or -supervised residential program. 

The bill also amends the Health Care Worker Background Check Act by prohibiting health care employers from knowingly hiring, employing, or retaining—for positions that involve direct care for clients, patients, or residents—individuals convicted of committing or attempting to commit one or more acts of sexual misconduct.

H.B. 4788: Child support owed to the state

House Bill 4788 amends the Public Aid Code by authorizing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (which operates the child support enforcement program) to eliminate or reduce debt that a person, usually a noncustodial parent, owes to the state because of child support arrearages and accrued interest. A person usually owes child support arrearages to the state because the noncustodial parent did not pay support due and the child received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) instead. The amendment does not affect any child support arrearages that the noncustodial parent owes to the child’s family. The department’s debt compromise will depend on low-income obligors’ circumstances and ability to pay. Any reduction or elimination of debt that a person owes to the state is only in exchange for regular payment of support that the person owes to the child’s family. Also, those who owe the debt must demonstrate that they were unable to pay when the arrearages accumulated. 

For more information, contact Wendy Pollack, director of the Women’s Law and Policy Project, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, at 312.263.3830 x 238.