On June 24, 2006, Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich signed House Bill 1643, requiring minors to maintain school attendance in order to keep their driver’s license or learner’s permit.

Governor Blagojevich stated, “A driver’s license is a privilege. And when students start abusing that privilege by skipping school, it becomes a problem. This bill gives teenagers a strong incentive not to cut class.”

Every three months, schools will submit truants to the Secretary of State. Truants are anyone under the age of eighteen who have withdrawn, been expelled, or are certified as truant by the regional superintendent. A “chronic and habitual truant’ is defined as a child subject to compulsory school attendance who is absent “without valid cause” for 10 percent or more of the previous 180 school days. “Valid cause’ is defined as illness, or death in the family.

All students that are listed on the school’s quarterly reports must show proof to the Secretary of State that they have resumed regular school attendance or home instruction, or can show that their application was falsely denied, are eligible to receive graduated licenses.

The new law does allow exceptions to the attendance rule. The law exempts students from the new law when failure to attend classes is due to economic reasons, medical necessity and/or family hardships. Minors who are married, are legally emancipated, or have already graduated, and/or received or are working on their GED are also exempt.

This law goes into effect July 1, 2007.