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HB 2817

Relating to forestland closures.

2025 Regular Session

Requires digital library databases for K–12 in Illinois to have safety policies and filters against child pornography and obscene materials, with enforcement and reporting.

Chapter 59, (2025 Laws): Effective date January 1, 2026.
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Bill Summary · HB 2817

Summary — HB 2817: “Database Resources for Students Act”

Note on sources: The materials you provided include text from two different HB 2817 drafts (an Arizona condominium bill and an Illinois “Database Resources for Students Act”). This summary focuses on the Database Resources for Students Act (Illinois), which matches the title you gave.

Purpose / Intent

To require that digital or online library database resources offered to K–12 students by public education entities include verified safety policies and technical protections that block or filter child pornography, obscene material, and material depicting child sexual exploitation — and to provide contracting remedies and reporting requirements if providers do not verify compliance.

Key provisions

  • Scope: Applies to digital/online library database resources offered to students in grades K–12 by a school district, State agency, public library, public university, community college, and (by amendment to the School Code) charter schools.
  • Required protections:
    • Providers must verify that all resources have safety policies and technology protection measures that:
    • prohibit and prevent a user from sending, receiving, viewing, or downloading child pornography, obscene materials, or materials that depict child sexual exploitation (referencing Illinois Criminal Code Sections 11‑20, 11‑20.1, and 11‑9.1); and
    • filter or block access to those categories of content.
  • Contract enforcement / remedies:
    • Notwithstanding contract terms, the education entity must withhold further payments to a provider pending verification of compliance.
    • If the provider fails to timely verify compliance, the entity must treat the noncompliance as a breach of contract.
  • Reporting: By December 1 each year, each affected school district, State agency, public library, public university, and community college must submit an aggregate written report to the General Assembly describing issues related to provider noncompliance.
  • Criminal liability: The Act does not exempt any employee of the covered entities from prosecution for willful violations of the Criminal Code provisions on obscenity and child pornography.
  • Effective date: July 1, 2026.

Who is affected

  • Directly: vendors/providers of digital/online library/database resources; K–12 public education institutions (school districts and charter schools), public libraries, state agencies, public universities and community colleges.
  • Indirectly: students (access to some databases may change), parents, and procurement officials. Providers unable or unwilling to certify compliance could lose contracts or payments.

Potential impacts and considerations

  • Student safety: strengthens requirements to prevent access to illegal or sexually explicit materials in school-provided digital databases.
  • Procurement and contracting: creates an administrative and compliance burden for vendors (technical filtering, policy documentation, verification) and for public purchasers (withholding payments, tracking compliance, annual reporting).
  • Access trade-offs: stricter filtering/policies could restrict legitimate educational materials or increase vendor costs; institutions may need to evaluate alternatives or modify contracts.
  • Enforcement: treating failure to verify as breach of contract gives entities leverage but requires clear standards and verification processes.

Legislative status & timeline (from provided materials)

  • Introduced in Illinois General Assembly: February 6, 2025 (Rep. Chris Miller — bill text indicates this date)
  • Effective date if enacted: July 1, 2026.

If you want, I can:
- Summarize the unrelated Arizona HB 2817 condominium draft that appeared in your materials, or
- Draft suggested contract language or an implementation checklist for a school district to comply with this Act.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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