Capitol News Illinois Hundreds rallied Thursday at the Capitol in Springfield to voice their opposition to a bill that would require oversight of families who homeschool their children, a response to concerns that the state offers no restrictions on homeschooling families. The bill, called the Homeschool Act, would require families to notify their local school…

Capitol News Illinois Are cellphones a useful tool or a distraction in the classroom? According to Gov. JB Pritzker, they’re a distraction, and he has proposed banning them during classroom instruction. Pritzker proposed legislation during his State of the State speech in February that would call for banning cellphones during classroom learning time. However, his…

Capitol News Illinois The Illinois state flag may be around a lot longer, it turns out. About 43% of the 385,000 votes in an advisory state flag revision contest decided they’d prefer to resist change and keep the current design. There were 12 other flag choices. Ten were designed by Illinois residents, students and even…

Capitol News Illinois ELGIN – High school students generally don’t participate in drafting legislation. Jordan Henry is an exception. A senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, the Elgin native is working with her local state representative on a bill that would require public libraries to keep on hand medications that can reverse an…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – Health care advocates, hospital officials and people who rely on Medicaid for their medical coverage warned state lawmakers Wednesday of consequences that could result from proposed cuts in federal Medicaid funding. “This is it. This is absolutely it. This is the line,” said Carrie Chapman, senior director of litigation and…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — Lawmakers’ projections for revenues in the coming year aren’t as high as Gov. JB Pritzker’s, raising questions about how much money will be available during this year’s budget negotiations. The General Assembly’s bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability released a new fiscal year 2026 revenue projection Tuesday that is…

Capitol News Illinois Illinois faces potential energy shortfalls and all-but-guaranteed price spikes for northern Illinois this summer, consumer and environmental advocates say. Lawmakers and advocates in Springfield have proposed bills that they say would address their concerns — but it’s unclear whether they’re likely to pass by the General Assembly’s expected May 31 adjournment. Rising…

Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD — The Trump administration has stopped reimbursing Illinois for a program designed to help farmers and supply fresh food to Illinois food banks. The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that changes to federal funding mean Illinois is missing reimbursements for costs for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, or LFPA,…