How a Little Faith Can Protect Our Children
By Maryam Brotine
Assistant General Counsel
Illinois Association of School Boards
Kimberly C. Chambers, Ed.D., pHCLE
Executive Director
Illinois Association of School
Personnel Administrators
Charles Watkins
Associate Director and General Counsel
Illinois Association of School Administrators
Why?
Those of us who work in schools work hard to keep our students safe. We know the importance of hiring staff who will do the same. We believe in this and know that it is critical to ensuring the success of our students. Since July 1, 2023, we have had a new tool to assist in this work: Employment History Reviews under Faith’s Law (105 ILCS 5/22-94). We have always had the fingerprint-based criminal history records check, Illinois Sex Offender Registry and Illinois Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry to gather information about potential employees — we now have a data point specific to sexual misconduct.
The Faith in Faith’s Law is Faith Colson, who, as a teen, was a well-adjusted, successful student in an Illinois school district. She was an athlete, an honor roll student and member of her church youth group. Faith’s family was supportive, she lived with her siblings as well as both of her parents. Faith was also groomed by her high school physics teacher, and entered into a sexual relationship with him that lasted several years before she exited and broke contact with him. In retrospect, she realized that what he had done was not “love” — it was wrong. In order to keep other kids safe, she advocated that the law in Illinois be changed, and as a result, we now have Faith’s Law.