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SPRINGFIELD– State Senator Christopher Belt led a new law that will protect consumers from being charged fees when service providers fail to give adequate notice before arriving at a residence.

“I don’t think that people should be left holding the bag if a company failed to communicate with them,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “If a service provider fails to follow the rules and shows up without proper notice, we shouldn’t be stuck paying extra fees.”

Senate Bill 3066 will establish new consumer protections for service appointments involving companies such as cable, plumbing or other home service providers.

Under the law, companies will be required to provide customers with a service appointment window of no more than two hours. If a company provides a window that exceeds two hours, it must notify the customer by phone call at least one hour before arriving at the residence.

Most importantly, if a company fails to provide the required notice and the customer is not home when the service provider arrives, the company will be prohibited from charging the customer a missed appointment fee, trip charge or any other additional fee related to the missed visit.

SWANSEA – State Senator Christopher Belt announced the Illinois Workforce Pell, a new program expanding on the federal Pell Grant by allowing eligible students to use grant funding for short-term workforce training programs aligned with in-demand occupations, is now accepting applications.

“This is an opportunity to develop unique skills while putting students in line for high-demand jobs,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “The Workforce Pell is a smart investment in Illinois’ future generations.”

By extending Pell eligibility to shorter-term programs, Workforce Pell broadens access to a more affordable path to a recognized credential, tied to employer-validated, high-skill, high-wage or in-demand jobs across the state. Illinois developed a rigorous approval process to ensure participating programs meet high standards for quality, workforce alignment and student outcomes – protecting students while ensuring public investments support credentials with strong labor market value.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Christopher Belt led a bipartisan effort to provide formerly incarcerated individuals with a second chance to maintain a publicly clean licensing record. The new law allows these individuals to continue serving the people of Illinois as licensed professionals while still providing the state with the flexibility to decide when to issue a license for protection of the public.

“This law will help people who, despite their past, want to get out there and work” said Belt (D-Swansea). “This is another great step on the path to allowing those with criminal records to start over and become productive members in a community.”

Belt’s new law is a result of findings from the Comprehensive Licensing Information to Minimize Barriers task force. The goals of the CLIMB task force were to identify low- and middle-income licensed occupations, gather information from the regulatory board for those occupations and create a final report with recommendations for the General Assembly. The report found that unnecessary restrictions and confusing procedures can discourage citizens with a history of involvement with the justice system from even trying to get a license. The task force’s recommendations, now implemented in House Bill 4762, included replacing vague language like "good moral character” and not considering arrests that did not lead to conviction. They also recommended that the state continue to pursue the approach developed by the Justice Center's Fair Change Licensing Reform project, which aimed to create a more equitable process for licensure by considering factor's beyond criminal records.

SPRINGFIELD– State Senator Christopher Belt spearheaded a new law that will ban the use of AI tools in teacher evaluations.

“I believe that our teachers should be judged based on actual observations and professional judgement, not by AI software,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “Our educators deserve a transparent and fair evaluation process that demonstrates their actual work in the classroom and protects their privacy.”

Senate Bill 2909 will prevent school administrators from using AI to write teacher evaluations. A teacher evaluation is a formal process used to measure an educator's effectiveness, instructional skills and classroom performance. The use of AI while writing these evaluations brings up many transparency and privacy concerns for teachers.

The law recognizes that AI might become an integral part of the teacher evaluation process one day, but the technology is not there yet. The law will not stop evaluators from using AI for administrative tasks. If the evaluator chooses to use AI assisted tools, they must name and specify the purpose of the tool used in the evaluation and share that information with the teacher being evaluated.

Senate Bill 2909 was signed into law on Friday.