SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CNI) – Immigrant rights and artificial intelligence were two of the hot-button issues that influenced public education in 2025. They are also the subject of new education-related laws that will take effect at the start of the new year.

The rights of noncitizen students, including those who are not lawfully present in the U.S., rose to the top of the education agenda as soon as President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in January.

The day Trump was inaugurated, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a Biden administration policy that had limited immigration enforcement actions in or near “sensitive locations” such as schools, playgrounds, child care centers and school bus stops.

Two days later, Illinois Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders issued what he called “non-regulatory guidance” to local school officials, urging them to adopt policies spelling out how and when their staff should cooperate with federal immigration officials carrying out enforcement actions or seeking information from school officials.

At the Statehouse, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly also took action, passing bills intended to extend more legal protections to noncitizens living in Illinois.

School program participation

Among those was House Bill 3247, which passed the General Assembly in the final days of the spring session in May and was signed into law Aug. 15. It prohibits schools from excluding or discouraging students from attending school or taking part in school programs based on their immigration status or that of their parents or guardians.

“In the face of federal threats to our schools and students, our communities came together and organized to demand that our state leaders stand up for education for all Illinois children,” Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said in a statement after the bill’s final approval.

“While the right to safe and free public education remains under attack from Trump and leaders in other states, Illinois has the opportunity to continue to uphold our values.”

The law specifically prohibits schools from requesting or collecting information from a student, their parents or guardians about their citizenship or immigration status unless the information is required by state or federal law.

It also prohibits schools from disclosing information about their immigration or citizenship status to any other person or entity, including immigration and law enforcement agencies, unless required to do so under federal law.

In addition, starting July 1, schools that violate those prohibitions can be sued in civil court for actual damages.

Scholarships and immigration status

Another new law expands the types of publicly funded scholarships students can qualify for regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.

Illinois law already extends eligibility for state-funded student financial aid such as the Monetary Award Program, or MAP grants, to any student who meets Illinois residency requirements. House Bill 460, which was signed into law in August, expands that to include programs administered by local units of government.

Artificial Intelligence in college

The rapid deployment in recent years of new technologies like ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemeni has raised a host of new questions for educators. Should students be allowed to use them in lieu of doing their own reading and writing? And should schools themselves be allowed to use them in lieu of human instructors to lead classes?

Illinois lawmakers addressed some of those questions.

House Bill 1859 requires community colleges to ensure that faculty members who teach courses must be actual people who meet the qualifications to hold their positions. It also provides that colleges may not, in lieu of a faculty member, use AI programs “as the sole source of instruction.” It does, however, allow faculty members to use AI as a teaching tool in their classrooms.

“Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can enhance both students’ and teachers’ capability to learn and teach, but it cannot replace an instructor,” Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, D-Bridgeview, the bill’s lead House sponsor, said in a statement. “This legislation clarifies that college courses must be taught by real people, not AI.”

AI at elementary and secondary schools

Lawmakers were less specific about how AI should be handled at the elementary and secondary education levels. Instead, they directed the Illinois State Board of Education to develop broad guidelines.

Senate Bill 1920 directs ISBE to develop statewide guidance for districts and educators on the use of AI in K-12 settings. That includes a basic explanation of what AI is and how it works as well as descriptions of how it can be used in the classroom “to inform teaching and learning practices while preserving the human relationships essential to effective teaching and learning.”

The law also directs ISBE to include guidance on the impact AI systems and applications could have on student data privacy, on best practices for teaching students about responsible and ethical uses of AI, and the dangers of “unintentional and disparate biases against special populations inherent within artificial intelligence products.”

The law directs ISBE to publish those guidelines by July 1.

Other education laws

Also beginning Jan. 1, students in seventh and eighth grade will be able to get an early jump on earning high school credits.

House Bill 3039 authorizes districts to award credits to seventh and eighth graders who enroll in high school classes as long as they pass both the course and the end-of-course examination demonstrating they have achieved high school-level proficiency.

House Bill 1366 requires districts to notify the parents or guardians of students with special needs that they have a right to bring a third-party advocate with them to meetings about their student’s Individual Education Plan, or IEP meetings.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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