SB2494 amends the Illinois Regulatory Sunset Act and the Illinois Athletic Trainers Practice Act, and also makes extensive changes to the Respiratory Care Practice Act. The bill extends the sunset date for the athletic trainers and respiratory care acts from January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2031, while also repealing certain sections that were previously scheduled to expire in 2026. In both practice acts, it updates terminology and administrative provisions to reflect current Department of Financial and Professional Regulation oversight, including replacing references to the Secretary or Board in some places, modernizing notice provisions to allow email notice, and revising gendered language to gender-neutral phrasing.
For athletic trainers, the bill revises definitions, licensure, endorsement, inactive status, discipline, and hearing procedures. It adds an email address of record requirement, clarifies temporary practice and endorsement rules, and shifts several administrative functions away from the board and toward the Department. It also updates disciplinary and enforcement provisions, including summary suspension, cease-and-desist authority, and recordkeeping. For respiratory care practitioners, the bill similarly updates licensure, renewal, discipline, hearings, and board structure, and it adds new substantive authority allowing respiratory care practitioners, after training and under specified conditions, to administer vaccinations for respiratory illness to adults pursuant to a valid prescription or standing order. It also clarifies that unlicensed personnel may deliver and demonstrate certain respiratory care equipment, but not perform clinical instruction or ventilator-related tasks reserved to licensed professionals.
The bill’s broader impact is to preserve and modernize two professional licensing frameworks rather than allowing them to sunset in 2026. It keeps the regulatory authority of the Department in place, updates application and renewal requirements, and maintains enforcement tools such as fines, suspension, revocation, injunctions, and cease-and-desist orders. It also affects applicants, licensees, employers, and educational or health care institutions by changing recordkeeping, supervision, and scope-of-practice rules, especially in respiratory care and athletic training settings.
The overall sentiment reflected in the voting history is strongly favorable and noncontroversial. The bill passed the Senate motion 55-0 and the House third reading 113-0, indicating unanimous support in both chambers. There were no committee transcript snippets provided, and no recorded opposition in the available voting history.
Notable points of contention are not evident in the available record, but the bill does make policy choices that could be of interest to stakeholders: it expands administrative control by the Department, changes the composition and role of the Respiratory Care Board, and adds a new vaccination-related function for respiratory care practitioners. Those provisions may be the most significant substantive changes, even though the bill appears to have advanced without recorded opposition.
SB2494 amends the Regulatory Sunset Act to extend the sunset dates for the Illinois Athletic Trainers Practice Act and the Respiratory Care Practice Act to January 1, 2031, preventing their repeal in 2026. It also revises numerous sections of both practice acts to update licensure, renewal, endorsement, discipline, hearing, notice, and recordkeeping provisions, including adding email-based notice and gender-neutral terminology. In the Respiratory Care Practice Act, it additionally authorizes certain vaccination-related activity by respiratory care practitioners under training and prescription/standing-order conditions, and it clarifies the scope of permissible conduct by unlicensed personnel and students.
The bill appears to have had overwhelmingly positive support and little visible controversy. It passed the Senate 55-0 and the House 113-0, suggesting broad bipartisan agreement to continue regulating these professions and to modernize the statutes. No committee testimony was provided, and the voting record shows no recorded opposition.
No explicit points of contention are documented in the available transcripts or votes. The most potentially sensitive provisions are the extension of the sunset dates, the shift of authority toward the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the restructuring of the Respiratory Care Board, and the new authority for respiratory care practitioners to administer certain vaccinations. Those changes could affect professional groups, employers, and regulators, but the available record does not show organized opposition.