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1 AN ACT concerning education.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5 Scholarship Accessibility Act.
6 Section 5. Illinois Scholarship Database.
7 (a) The Illinois Scholarship Database is established. The
8 Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall develop,
9 implement, and administer the Database.
10 (b) The Database shall be both a website and an
11 application so that the Database is publicly accessible and
12 easy to use.
13 (c) The purpose of the Database is to be a utility to
14 improve Illinois students' access to higher education
15 scholarships, as well as to improve their knowledge of
16 scholarships.
17 (d) To inform students and their parents on what
18 scholarships are and how they are attained and maintained, all
19 of the following apply:
20 (1) Beginning in the 7th grade, a public school shall
21 inform students of the Database and shall require them to
22 create an account with the Database. The account may not
23 be under any administrative body that has access to or the
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1 ability to terminate the email used to register for the
2 account.
3 (2) To help consistently keep parents informed of the
4 importance of scholarships and financial aid, the account
5 shall be created jointly by the student and the parent,
6 with a clear indication of which user is the student and
7 which user is the parent.
8 (3) Both the student and the parent shall have access
9 to the account and the ability to manage activity on the
10 account.
11 (e) The Database shall allow the student to have and the
12 student is required to complete a profile that does both of the
13 following:
14 (1) Presents a portfolio of the student and who the
15 student is and the student's current year of enrollment.
16 This requirement shall be a part of the account-creation
17 process and may not be different for students of different
18 ages.
19 (2) Lists any criminal charge that requires the
20 student to be a part of a registry for a crime the student
21 has committed, unless the student is legally protected
22 under law or court order or another exigent circumstance.
23 This paragraph (2) does not apply to a student until the
24 student has finished high school. This paragraph (2) does
25 apply to a student who is considered to have failed high
26 school.
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1 Section 10. Database contents.
2 (a) The Database shall include and display a comprehensive
3 list of scholarships as follows:
4 (1) Entities or persons that offer higher education
5 scholarships shall be allowed to add their scholarships
6 and the requirements for those scholarships to the
7 Database if the requirements do not:
8 (A) offer a scholarship opportunity only at
9 particular higher education institutions without being
10 completely transparent as to which higher education
11 institutions the scholarship opportunity is offered
12 at;
13 (B) offer a scholarship opportunity without
14 showing all of the requirements to obtain the
15 scholarship opportunity; or
16 (C) have troublesome or absurd requirements that
17 are not appropriate for higher education institutions.
18 (2) More widely known scholarships from anywhere in
19 the country may be displayed if they are accessible to
20 students in this State.
21 (b) The Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall be
22 responsible for funding scholarship workshops that can be
23 viewed by all students and other events decided upon by the
24 Commission to help inform students and parents and make them
25 aware of scholarships.
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1 Section 15. Adult student access.
2 (a) Students 18 years of age or older shall also be able to
3 create an account with and have access to the Database. These
4 students shall be able to maintain an account without the
5 requirement of having a parent have access to the account. A
6 student who created an account prior to turning 18 may remove
7 the student's parent from the account after reaching the age
8 of 18.
9 (b) The requirements of subsection (e) of Section 5 shall
10 apply to an account created by a student 18 years of age or
11 older.
12 (c) The Database shall remain accessible to any student
13 who uses it, regardless of age.
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