On Monday, a new law takes effect that will have an impact on public school students within the state of Illinois. Senate Bill 28 requires a school day to include at least five clock hours of instruction.

The Bill “provides that for a pupil of legal school age and in kindergarten or any of grades 1 through 12, a day of attendance shall be counted only for sessions of not less than 5 clock hours of school work per day.”

The “five-hour” rule had been the law for many years in Illinois, but it was replaced by a new public school funding system in 2017.

The new law allows some exceptions to the five-hour rule for time students spend taking college courses for credit, participating in career development programs, and youth apprenticeships. There is also an exception to the five-hour rule for “participation in a blended learning program in which course content, student evaluation, and instructional methods are supervised by an educator licensed under the School Code.” The impacts of the Bill will be first seen in the Fall of 2019.