H1N1 Virus Resources
District/Individual Building Closures Due to a Public Health Emergency
If a district closes due to a public health emergency, the Emergency Days which are built into the proposed calendar will need to be used and made up prior to the end of the school year. Once Emergency Days have been exhausted, if the district must close due to a condition beyond the control of the school district that poses a hazardous threat to the health and safety of students, such as a public health emergency, the district may request approval from the State Superintendent for an Act of God day. This is done by electronically updating the Public School Calendar via IWAS. A district is not required to make up Act of God days and Act of God days do not negatively impact the calculation of Average Daily Attendance for General State Aid purposes. Emergency Days and Act of God days do affect the public school calendar.
P. A. 96-0689 effective August 25, 2009, added Section 18-12.5 to the Illinois School Code which allows a district to close to student attendance one or more, but not all recognized school buildings due to a public health emergency after the district has consulted with a local health department and still claim attendance for that building for General State Aid purposes. The Illinois State Board of Education in consultation with the Illinois Department of Public Health must determine a public health emergency exists. Once a public health emergency has been verified for General State Aid, the district may claim attendance for the day(s) that the building is closed based on the average of three days of attendance immediately preceding the closure. If only a building within the district is closed due to a public health emergency it does not affect the public school calendar however these days must be reported via the Public School Calendar system via IWAS using the menu item Enter School Building Interruption/Closure.
You may access further details and information at http://www.isbe.net/funding/pdf/PA96-0689_district_guidance.pdf.
If you have questions regarding this information you may contact Marj Beck at mbeck@isbe.net or telephone 217/782-5256.
