Page 6 - 2019-2020 Annual Report

Parents & Legislators

Open House

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Illinois Legislators and Giant Steps Parents joined us on January 14,
2020 for a successful Open House. Parents were able to talk with their
legislators on a variety of topics important to them.

GIANT STEPS PROGRAMS
Each educational department at Giant Steps presented their programs and took
pride in talking with, and answering questions for both legislators and parents.

BUILDING TOURS
Our administration staff lead tours of our building and
explained our customized learning environment.

House Bills HB3975 & SB2315

In November of 2019, the Chicago Tribune in cooperation with ProPublica, wrote an article exposing illegal
practices across the state of Illinois regarding the use of isolated time out (also known as seclusion). This
prompted an emergency order by the governor and immediate legislative action in both the House and the
Senate. Their goal was to increase accountability around the use of both restraint and seclusion across the
educational entities in the state. Unfortunately, the emergency rules and the proposed HB3975 & SB2315
had unintended consequences for the students at Giant Steps. Not all students (especially those placed in
a therapeutic day setting) have yet developed the skills to reliably refrain from dangerous self-injurious or
aggressive behaviors. Eliminating or highly restricting the use of restraint, time out, and isolated time out also
restricted the tools that could be reactively used when an imminent risk of serious physical harm threatened the
safety of our students and staff. Giant Steps worked collaboratively with
the Illinois State Board of Education and with a number of legislators
throughout the year to advocate for the needs of our students to
ensure they could continue to receive their education in the least
restrictive environment determined by their IEP teams. Throughout
these collaborative efforts, Giant Steps sought to be a leader in the
best practices for the use of restraint and seclusion, ultimately working
toward a solution that would serve all students across the state.

https://www.pbs.org/video/legislators-search-answers-after-isolation-room-report-hi89v/
House Bill HB3973

The Illinois Legislature’s House Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) revised the Fiscal Provision
in Rule 401, placing a major burden on Giant Steps’ cash flow in 2019. Giant Steps learned about the
revision by the JCAR committee and began to work with Rep. Keith Wheeler to propose House Bill 3973.
The proposed legislation by Giant Steps would help to correct the language in the revised Fiscal Provision
Rule 401 and allow schools like our organization to return to pre-billing and eliminate the cash flow problem
created by the revision. As a not-for-profit organization, it was important for Giant Steps to take action on
5 managing the situation and prevent the Financial burden the initial revision would place on the organization.