Faith's Law

Faith's Law

Faith’s Law is named after prevention advocate and child sexual abuse survivor Faith Colson, who graduated from an Illinois high school in the early 2000s. Faith was sexually abused by a teacher at her high school. Years later, during the course of legal proceedings related to the abuse, Faith learned that several adults within her high school suspected that the teacher’s relationship with her was inappropriate but did not take appropriate action to report their concerns. As a result of her experiences, Faith pushed for change to state laws related to educator sexual misconduct in K-12 schools. Faith’s Law was passed by the 102nd General Assembly as two separate pieces of legislation. 

On December 3, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed Faith’s Law, P.A. 102-0676 (HB 1976), into law. Faith’s Law expands the criminal definition of grooming beyond electronic communications to include written communications and acts committed in person or by conduct through a third party. The law also makes it clear that mandated reporters must report suspected grooming to DCFS under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. In addition to expanding the criminal definition of grooming, Faith’s Law includes several new requirements for schools and educators intended to prevent sexual abuse and misconduct in schools.

The law specifically provides that any violation of the employee code of professional conduct or failure to report a violation may subject an employee to discipline, up to and including dismissal from employment. As part of this law, we are sharing a copy of the Resource Guide to support you and your family should you need it. We are also including a copy of our Code of Conduct.