Bill Text: IL SB0624 | 2011-2012 | 97th General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Amends the School Code. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning waivers of School Code mandates.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 22-7)

Status: (Failed) 2013-01-08 - Session Sine Die [SB0624 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2011-SB0624-Amended.html

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Sen. Kwame Raoul

Filed: 4/11/2011

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AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 624
AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 624 by replacing
everything after the enacting clause with the following:
"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the High
School State Tournaments, Competitions, and Fairness Act.
Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the
following:
(1) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the
Illinois Constitution, a fundamental goal of the people of
this State is the educational development of all persons to
the limits of their capacities.
(2) That, pursuant to Section 1 of Article X of the
Illinois Constitution, the State has provided substantial
funding to the system of public education, and that the
funds provided by the State have assisted the high schools
of this State to finance sporting competition, to pay

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coaches' salaries, and to provide sports facilities used by
the public schools of this State.
(3) That high school sports competitions should be won
fairly and squarely on the fields of play, and that rules
and regulations designed to give any school or group of
schools a legislative advantage over another school or
group of schools should be forbidden.
(4) That certain organizations or associations hold or
claim to hold sports tournaments for the high school
student athletes of this State and to award State
championships and State titles to the winners of these
tournaments.
(5) That certain organizations holding State
tournaments that purport to award State championships or
State titles based on fair competition have passed rules
that have the appearance of discriminating against
parochial, private, and magnet schools.
(6) That if publicly funded schools participate in
sports tournaments that purport to award State
championships or State titles, then these tournaments must
be conducted consistently with the spirit and requirements
of due process and equal protection under Section 2 of
Article I of the Illinois Constitution, and that race,
religion, creed, and national ancestry should be
irrelevant to and shall have no part in the competition.
(7) That State titles and State championships should be

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won on the basis of excellence on the fields of play and
roughly equal contestants on the fields of play, and that
it is inconsistent with the notions of public education
that any school should be barred from competition or put at
a competitive disadvantage by organization or association
rules that apply to one school in the competition and not
the other.
(8) That smaller schools cannot fairly compete with
substantially larger schools, and that it should therefore
be permissible to create classes, such as Class A and Class
AA, but that these classes must be based on actual
enrollments and not upon imaginary students.
(9) That devices, such as multipliers, that create the
illusion that a school has more than its actual number of
students are forbidden.
(10) That disputes between an organization or
association and any member school over recruiting
practices require a hearing that meets with the procedural
notions of due process, including an impartial hearing
panel, a charge, an opportunity to be heard, and the right
to appear by counsel.
Section 10. Application. This Act applies to competitions
run by any person, corporation, organization, or association in
this State purporting to award a State championship, State
title, or the like and involving the publicly funded high

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schools of this State.
Section 15. Prohibitions. In all competitions, no
distinctions between schools may be made on the basis of race,
religion, creed, or nation of origin, and no parochial,
private, charter, or magnet school may be barred from such
competition or be placed at a competitive disadvantage. No
publicly funded high school in this State may participate in
any State tournament or State title competition if the
organizer seeks by use of a multiplier or like device to move
any school into a higher class. No provision of this Act shall
prohibit a school from petitioning the Illinois High School
Association to move up in athletic class.
Section 20. Tournament organization. A tournament
organizer may organize classes based on the actual number of
students attending a school. The organizer may provide for
separate boys' and girls' tournaments. In determining classes,
boys' classes must be based on the actual number of boys
attending the school, and girls' classes must be based on the
actual number of girls attending the school. The use of
multipliers and like devices are forbidden.".