State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, has filed a bill (HB 4314) to repeal the exisiting HIV/AIDS principal notification law.
An Illinois law, passed in 1987, requires the names of children with HIV to be reported to school principals. Thirty-six states do not statutorily address disclosure of a student’s HIV status.
Advocates crusading against the statute are concerned that, among other things, the law may have been driven more by hysteria than by a real need to protect the public health.
On Nov. 9, 2007, Feigenholtz participated in a forum, hosted by the Chicago-based child welfare agency The Children’s Place Association, that centered on HIV/AIDS and Illinois adolescents. Prior to the forum, she told Windy City Times that she was “alarmed” when the notification statute was brought to her attention, and called the law “culturally insensitive.”