New law limits term of physical education
waivers
 Public
Act 95-223 was enacted in August and takes effect on January
1, 2008. This Act provides that an approved physical education
waiver (or modification) may remain in effect for a period
not to exceed (two) 2 school years and may be
renewed no more than (two) 2 times upon application by the
eligible applicant.
Before passage of this law, physical education applications
could be requested for a maximum of five years and for an
unlimited amount of time. The intent of this law is that a
school district or other applicant will be limited to a total
of six years in which it may have an approved waiver for physical
education. The six-year total applies to the district and
not to individual waivers; in other words, if an applicant
holds more than one physical education waiver (for different
grades and purposes), each application will count
towards the six-year limit.
School districts and other organizations eligible to apply
for waivers should assume that any physical education applications
submitted to the State Board from this time on are subject
to the provisions of P.A. 95-223.
Here is a link to Public Act 95-223: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=095-0223&GA=095
Please note that P.A. 95-223 did
not change the public hearing requirements for physical education
waivers. Applicants for physical education waivers or modifications
must continue to hold the public hearing to consider the request
on a day other than one on which a regular board meeting
is held.
Application
Deadlines for requests to be
submitted to the General Assembly:*
 The
postmark deadline for the Fall 2008 Waiver Report is
Friday, August 8, 2008.
The postmark deadline for the
Spring 2009 Waiver Report is Friday, January 9, 2009.
*EXCEPTIONS:
Applications for Legal School Holidays are not waivers
and so the postmark deadlines noted above do not apply
to them. Such applications are modifications
of the School Code and are approved by the State Board
of Education.
* Applicants are encouraged to submit those petitions
that address calendar issues to the State Board before
the calendars affected by the requests are submitted
for review. Please note that Section 10-19 of the School
Code requires each school district to submit an amended
calendar to its Regional Office of Education and have
it approved before any calendar modification granted
by the State Board of Education (school holidays) or
General Assembly (parent-teacher conference and inservice
days) can be implemented.
Applications for waivers or
modifications of the State Board’s administrative
rules are also not subject to the
postmark deadlines for waivers of the School Code.
However, in all cases approvals for any of these requests
must be granted before the request can be implemented.
Please Note: The process for applying for a
modification of the School Code, a waiver of State Board
rules, or a modification of State Board rules is
exactly the same process as the one used
in applying for a waiver of a School Code mandate.
If you have any questions about the type of request
you will be submitting, please call the Rules and Waivers
division at (217) 782-5270, or email them at waivers@isbe.net.
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Getting Started
Before starting the waiver process, each applicant should
carefully review requirements outlined in the “Overview
for Waiver Process” found at http://www.isbe.net/isbewaivers/html/overview.htm.
Any application not meeting all of the requirements
of the law will not be considered and will be returned to
the applicant as ineligible.
Use the documents below to understand the waiver process
and prepare a complete application. Simply click on the hyperlink
below to go to the desired web page. If you have any questions,
please contact the Rules and Waivers Division at (217) 782-5270
or by email at Waivers.
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