When Illinois schools bring in outside staffing: a school nurse, a therapy aide, a skilled healthcare professional to support a student with complex medical needs, they are not just filling a shift. They are extending their duty of care to every student in that building. Faith's Law makes that responsibility concrete, and it applies not just to district employees but to the contractors and staffing partners who place professionals in schools.
For school administrators and HR teams in the Schaumburg area, understanding how Faith's Law intersects with contracted staffing is increasingly important. This post explains what the law requires, what it means for districts that work with outside healthcare staffing agencies, and how BrightStar Care of Schaumburg approaches the hiring and documentation process to support your district's compliance efforts.
What Is Faith's Law and Why Does It Exist?
Faith's Law takes its name from a real person. Faith graduated from an Illinois high school in the early 2000s and was sexually abused by a teacher there. Years later, during the course of legal proceedings related to the abuse, she learned that several adults within her school had suspected that the teacher's relationship with her was inappropriate but did not take appropriate action to report their concerns. Her advocacy led to the passage of legislation designed to close the gaps that allowed misconduct to go unaddressed.
Illinois passed Faith's Law as two separate pieces of legislation. The first piece took effect on December 3, 2021, and defined "sexual misconduct" within the Illinois School Code. The second piece took effect on July 1, 2023, and focuses on the prevention of sexual misconduct by school employees, substitute employees, and employees of contractors.
The July 2023 provisions are the ones most directly relevant to districts working with staffing agencies. They introduced new employment screening requirements that go beyond the fingerprint-based criminal background checks districts have long been required to conduct — and they apply equally to the agencies and contractors placing staff in schools.
What the Law Requires of School Contractors
Effective July 1, 2023, all public and nonpublic schools and their contractors are required to conduct an employment history review of all applicants for employment who will have direct contact with children or students. This is separate from, and in addition to, fingerprint-based criminal background checks not a replacement for them.
Schools and contractors complete the employment history review process using template forms that the Illinois State Board of Education has prepared and published on its website.
The process involves two key documents:
Schools and school contractors first require the applicant to complete a form called the "Illinois State Board of Education Sexual Misconduct Disclosure Template for Applicant," which asks the applicant to disclose whether they were the subject of a past allegation of sexual misconduct. Schools and school contractors then send the Authorization for Release of Sexual Misconduct-Related Information to the applicant's current and former employers, and those entities must complete and return the forms.
The school or contractor must initiate a review of the employment history of the applicant by contacting the employers listed by the applicant. Those listed employers must disclose the requested information within 20 days after receiving the request.
One important detail for districts to understand: the law has no time limit, so applicants must provide authorization forms for every past employer that meets the relevant criteria specifically, prior employers that were schools, school contractors, or positions where the applicant had direct contact with children.
If a school contractor becomes aware of information that would disqualify an applicant from working at the school, such as a previous finding of sexual misconduct, the contractor must notify the school. The school has the right to reject the applicant based on the information provided. The contractor must retain records documenting its employment history reviews for all relevant employees.
School employees or employees of contractors hired before July 1, 2023 are not required to undergo an employment history review but anyone placed in a school setting on or after that date falls under the full requirement.
Why This Matters for Districts Working With Outside Staffing Agencies
When a district contracts with a healthcare staffing agency to provide a school nurse, a one-on-one health aide, a physical therapist, or other skilled clinical staff, the legal framework applies to that placement. The district is not merely hiring a warm body for a shift, it is bringing a contractor's employee into direct contact with students, which triggers the employment history review requirement.
This means the quality of the staffing agency's hiring and documentation processes directly affects the district's ability to meet its own compliance obligations. A district that works with an agency that does not maintain rigorous employment histories, credential records, and disclosure documentation is being handed a compliance problem, not a solution.
The right staffing partner does not create additional compliance work for your HR team. It comes to the relationship with its documentation organized, its staff properly screened, and its processes designed to support the transparency that Faith's Law requires.
How BrightStar Care of Schaumburg Approaches This
BrightStar Care of Schaumburg does not certify compliance with Faith's Law, and nothing in this post should be read as legal advice districts should work with their own legal counsel to ensure their processes are fully aligned with the law's requirements. What we can speak to is our own hiring and documentation practices and how they are designed to support the kind of transparency and rigor that Faith's Law reflects.
Employment History Review Support
Every BrightStar Care professional placed in a school setting goes through our comprehensive pre-placement process, which includes supporting the completion of employment history review documentation as required for Illinois school placements. We maintain organized records for our staff and work closely with district HR teams to ensure the documentation they need is available, accurate, and provided in a timely way.
Fingerprint-Based Criminal Background Checks
Our hiring process includes fingerprint-based criminal background checks, the baseline requirement that has long applied to school personnel as a standard part of every placement. This is not a box-checking exercise. It is a fundamental screening step, and we treat it that way.
License and Credential Verification
Every clinical professional we place, whether a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, certified nursing assistant, or therapist, undergoes thorough license and credential verification before placement. We verify that licenses are current, in good standing, and appropriate for the scope of work the individual will be performing. For school placements, where a nurse or aide may be the sole clinical presence in a building, this verification matters.
Ongoing Supervision and Nurse Oversight
BrightStar Care's model is built on RN oversight of all care delivery. Every placement benefits from the supervision and accountability structures of a Joint Commission-accredited home care agency. That does not disappear when our staff walks into a school building. Our professionals are accountable to a clinical infrastructure not just to the district scheduling them.
Documentation Transparency
We understand that district HR teams need documentation they can actually work with records that are organized, complete, and responsive to the questions that come up during an audit or a compliance review. Our team is structured to provide that transparency and to work with district administrators directly when questions arise.
Compliance Does Not Have to Slow Staffing Down
One concern we hear from school administrators particularly in the middle of a school year, when a nurse position opens unexpectedly or an aide needs to be replaced quickly is that compliance requirements make rapid staffing difficult. The paperwork takes time. The verification takes time. And students with medical needs do not wait.
That tension is real, but it is not inevitable. An experienced healthcare staffing partner that has built compliance into its standard hiring process rather than treating it as an add-on triggered by a specific placement can move efficiently without cutting corners. The goal is to have the work done before urgency creates pressure to skip it.
BrightStar Care of Schaumburg staffs Schaumburg, Barrington, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Streamwood, and surrounding Cook and DuPage County communities. We work with school districts throughout the area, and we understand the staffing demands that come with supporting students who have complex medical needs during the school day.
If your district is navigating a current opening or planning ahead for the coming school year, we are glad to talk through how our hiring and documentation process can support your compliance efforts while keeping your students safely staffed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does Faith's Law apply to all contracted staff in a school, or only to certain roles?
Faith's Law applies to contracted employees who have direct contact with children or students. For healthcare staffing, this includes school nurses, health aides, therapists, and other clinical professionals placed in schools where they will interact with students. Districts should consult with their legal counsel to assess which specific contracted roles within their buildings fall under the requirement, as the determination depends on the nature of the role and the degree of student contact involved.
Q: Is it the district's responsibility to conduct the employment history review, or does it fall to the staffing agency?
Both the school and the contractor have obligations under Faith's Law. The contractor in this case, the staffing agency placing the individual is required to conduct an employment history review of its staff who will have direct student contact and to maintain records of those reviews. The district also has its own obligations, which is why working with a staffing agency that maintains organized documentation is so important. Districts should work with legal counsel to understand the full scope of their obligations and ensure their contracting agreements with staffing agencies reflect those expectations.
Q: What should a district ask a healthcare staffing agency before contracting for school placements?
At a minimum, districts should ask about the agency's background check process, whether it conducts employment history reviews consistent with Faith's Law requirements, how it verifies licenses and credentials, what documentation it provides to the district upon placement, and how it handles situations where information surfaces that would disqualify a candidate. A staffing agency that cannot answer these questions clearly is not the right partner for a school placement.
BrightStar Care of Schaumburg provides skilled nursing and non-medical staffing services to schools, families, and healthcare facilities throughout the Schaumburg area, including Barrington, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Streamwood, and surrounding Cook and DuPage County communities. To speak with our team about school staffing support, contact our office today.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. School districts should consult with qualified legal counsel regarding their specific compliance obligations under Faith's Law.
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