We have an Illinois state budget update and a request for organizations to support Access Living’s Spring 2026 Legislative Agenda! Read on for more.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has delivered his annual State of the State and budget speech at our State Capitol. While in many ways the Illinois budget continues to make great progress under his leadership, our next budget year will be impacted by $8.4 billion in loss of federal funding. This makes calculating our state’s budget outlook much more complicated. The Governor did talk about making greater investment in disability services than ever before, but Access Living is still reviewing the budget to understand its impact for our community. You can read the Governor’s budget speech at this link. The state legislature will now take up debating the Governor’s budget proposal, which can be found at this link.
Access Living advocates for state legislation that impacts the lives of disabled Illinoisans, and we need your organization’s help. These legislative priorities are deeply rooted in disability rights and justice, shaped by the lived experiences of people with disabilities. These bills will ensure that our community, regardless of income, setting, or circumstance, has increased access to rights, services, and dignity.
Calling on our partners to take action today! Pledge your organization’s support for Access Living’s Legislative Agenda using this form: SIGN-ON HERE! If you are not authorized to sign on to a policy platform for your organization, please share this email with your organization’s leadership and ask them to consider signing on. Local, state, and national organizations are welcome.
We currently lead the following bills in our Legislative Agenda. Please note that Access Living usually also supports other bills led by our partners, but these are the ones we lead this spring.
Economic Justice
- HB 5029 / SB 3254 Funding for Centers for Independent Living (CILs): Increase CIL funding by $10 million.
- HB 4586 / SB 3406 Funding for Home Modification for People with Disabilities: Increase Home Mods funding, administered by CILs, by around $5 million to meet high demand.
- HB 4758 Accessible Job Applications: Prevents employers from requiring unnecessary driver’s license requirements on job applications.
- HB 5257 / SB 3813 Accessible Shelters NOW: Requires the city of Chicago to make accessibility accommodations to emergency/transitional housing or require state funds to make these improvements.
- HB 3815 700-Hour Demonstration Program: Establishes a 700-hour appointment program to state roles, in lieu of an interview, to allow applicants with significant disabilities the opportunity to work in state government.
Healthcare/Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
- HB 1568 / SB 2471 Eliminating Income Limits for the Health Benefits for Workers with Disabilities (HBWD) Program: Eliminates asset and income limits for HBWD allowing greater financial independence while providing access to these essential services. HBWD is Illinois’ Medicaid buy-in program.
- HB 4848 / SB 3340 Protective Medical Equipment Freedom Act – Kiki’s Law: Ensure people with disabilities are not forced to remove protective medical equipment or denied service in public places.
- SB 3795 Safeguards for Assisted Suicide: Trailer bill for SB 1950, assisted suicide, includes mandatory mental health evaluations, creation of an ombudsman, data collection, and more.
Diversion and Reentry
- HB 1810 / SB 1395 Equitable Access to Education, Employment and Training for Incarcerated Individuals with Disabilities Act: Establishes a waiver for people with I/DD to wave the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) Test in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).
- HB 4434 / SB 3531 Humanizing End-of-Life Care for People in Prison (HELPP Act): Creates a peer-to-peer model for end-of-life care for individuals in IDOC.
Education
- HB 4068 Creating Timelines for 504 Plan Implementation: Currently, there are no timeline requirements for schools to implement 504 plans. This bill would create implementation requirements that mirror IEP implementation requirements set by the federal IDEA law.
- HB 5488 Defining Impartiality for 504 Hearing Officers: The purpose of this bill is to protect the rights of students with 504 plans by creating a mechanism for families and school districts to mediate 504 complaints at the state level through a system to certify impartial 504 hearing officers.
- HB 1783 LEAD-K – Language Acquisition for Deaf children under the age of six. Seeks to ensure a foundation for English literacy skills for kindergarten readiness for all D/deaf and hard of hearing children by having full access to language at every stage of life. Allows parents to have their child evaluated in either English or ASL (or both) to determine their English literacy skills for kindergarten readiness. Access Living is supporting Deaf advocates on this bill.
Transportation
- HB 5092 / SB 3419 Disability Representation for Transportation Service Boards: Trailer bill for the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) Act. Requires disability representation on NITA, Metra, Pace, and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) boards. Would require ADA committees for Metra, Pace, and CTA.
Voting
- HB 4613 Plain Language Requirement for Ballot Initiatives: This bill would require that ballot proposition questions (and constitutional amendments) adhere to plain language requirements. Questions must be written at an 8th grade reading level or lower. This would create better accessibility to the ballot by preventing confusing/convoluted ballot questions.
Your voice matters! Submit your organization’s support HERE to ensure Illinois prioritizes people with disabilities in State policies. Feel free to share this request with interested organizations.
If you would like to learn more about any of these bills, please reach out to our Senior Manager of Policy and Government Affairs, Jersey-Shabazz Hosier, at jshosier@accessliving.org.