Starting in the fall of 2024, a new state law, the Wellness Checks in Schools Program Act, will require yearly mental health screenings for Illinois’ 2 million school students.

Mark Klaisner, executive director of West 40 in West Cook County, said schools only have a few months to find a screening model and train people to administer the screenings. The Illinois State Board of Education is currently working through the challenge of exactly how to get a mental health screening process up and running.

An employee of the city clerk’s office who allegedly pocketed six figures worth of cash payments for city stickers over a seven-year period.

A contractor accused of pocketing more than $200,000 in 25% debt collection fees on accounts that were not delinquent.

Funding for the ongoing migrant crisis and crafting voting logistics for Chicago’s first elected school board are among the pressing issues facing Illinois lawmakers as they return to Springfield on Tuesday for a four-month legislative session.

Adding a potentially complicating element to the session, which ends in May, is the March 19 primary, when all 118 Illinois House seats and 23 of the Illinois Senate’s 59 seats are on the ballot. Legislators are generally loath to confront controversial issues in an election year.

Chicago city officials say they were not expecting any buses to arrive Sunday and that all migrants were housed in some type of shelter.

The city also provided an update, saying it has received more than 33,000 asylum seekers in total.

A year before West Dundee officials bought a shuttered Sears, a developer wanted the building for an indoor paintball park.

The developer was close to inking a deal with Sears when town officials learned of the idea, Village President Chris Nelson recalled. A paintball facility was not what they envisioned for a former anchor of Spring Hill Mall.

Twenty people were evacuated Monday morning after an Orange Line train derailed in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood, prompting major service delays, officials said.

The inbound train derailed around 6:30 a.m. near the 35th/Archer station, according to a statement from the CTA. No one on board was injured, and the passengers were able to evacuate around 8:30 a.m., said Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Juan Hernandez.

More than $45 million from last year’s Madison County budget is expected to be reappropriated after the Finance Committee gave its approval Thursday.

Reappropriation is taking unspent money from the previous budget year and allowing it to be carried over to the next year.