Bill Excuses Students Up To 5 Days A Year For Religious Reasons

SKOKIE, IL — A proposed change to the Illinois School Code would excuse students from being absent from school for up to five days a year for religious reasons.

The legislation, House Bill 169, is an initiative of the Northern Illinois Muslim American Alliance. Last month, it passed the Illinois House by a vote of 108-0, and it received unanimous support this week from the Senate Education Committee.

“This would provide school children the ability to celebrate important religious holidays and strengthen the bond between their families,” Vaseem Iftekhar, the founder and chair of the Lake County-based alliance, said in a statement. “This change would be greatly welcomed by Muslim and other religious communities.”

An earlier version of the bill was introduced in the House in December 2019 by Rep. Dan Didech (D-Buffalo Grove), with Rep. Diane Pappas (D-Itasca) and former Rep. Mark Kalish (D-Skokie) as chief co-sponsors.

It was approved by a House committee in February 2020 but referred in June 2020 to the Rules Committee — one of many legislative casualties of the decision by the leadership of the Illinois General Assembly to only convene for a few days last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Didech, who in January reintroduced the measure in a new bill, told Patch he was hopeful the state Senate would approve it this session.

"HB 169 will ensure that students in Illinois from all backgrounds will have the opportunity to observe religious holidays in a manner that they and their families see fit," he said in an email. "In a time with so much partisanship and division, the unanimous, bipartisan support of this bill sends a strong message that Illinois is a welcoming state where everyone's culture and background are respected."

Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Skokie) is the bill's chief sponsor in the Senate. He said there has been widespread recognition that the changes are beneficial for every community and school district.

"This is an opportunity for us to put it forward as a statewide policy that all 800-plus school districts can look to, and that way we're not creating 800 different policies," Villivalam told Patch. "I will also say it was measured. We said, 'Look, it cannot be more than five days a school year.' However, we wanted to make sure that we're not forcing our youth to pick between their education and their religious observation."

The text of the bill eliminates the state requirement that school boards come up with "a list of religious holidays on which it shall be mandatory to excuse a child."

Should it pass, district superintendents will be in charge of coming up with rules for religious exemptions, rather than school boards. It also replaces "due to the observance of a religious holiday" to "because of religious reasons" in its reference to the maximum of five days notice that districts can require parents to provide ahead of excused absences for religious reasons.

The bill has the support of the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Jewish United Fund, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, the National Association of Social Workers and the Chicago Teachers Union, according to witness slips.

The bill, which does not affect private or religious schools, is set for a second reading in the state Senate Thursday and is expected to go for a full vote before the end of the month.

Villivalam said it goes without saying that that students should be able to permitted to observe religious holidays without missing exams and school work. The state senator said it will be up to local school boards to determine whether offering students up to five extra excused absences for religious reasons would permit cutting down the number of mandatory religious holidays.

"This is, I think, going to have a tremendous impact on our local districts and the diversity of our local districts being observed, and local communities," he said.

"The beauty of it is that, yes, the Muslim American community brought this legislation forward, however, it will apply to the Jewish community, the Assyrian community, the Greek community — the list goes on."