Cocktails-to-go, new state agency among laws taking effect July 1
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14 new laws will begin with new fiscal year
By BEN SZALINSKI
Capitol News Illinois
July 1 marked a second New Year’s Day in Illinois as a new budget takes effect along with more than a dozen new state laws.
In addition to the state’s nearly $56 billion fiscal year 2027 budget being implemented and the 1-cent motor fuel tax increase being suspended for the remainder of the year, 14 news laws will go into effect on Wednesday.
Cocktails-to-go
A pandemic-era allowance is now law six-and-a-half years later. Senate Bill 618 makes cocktails-to-go permanent.
Illinois lawmakers passed legislation during the pandemic that allowed restaurants and bars to sell cocktails and mixed drinks for pickup or delivery as businesses were closed to in-person customers. That will be allowed to continue permanently under the new law.
AI and bullying
Posting unauthorized artificial intelligence images can be considered cyberbullying in Illinois schools under House Bill 3851. This includes posting or distributing sexual images. Creating sexual images of children can also be charged under the state’s child pornography laws under a law passed in 2025.
“Many people are using AI to produce harmful materials, which has led to a whole new level of cyberbullying,” Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel, D-Shorewood, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “We cannot let our laws fall behind technology. This legislation helps our state meet current challenges and ensures bullying via AI is addressed in the school code.”
Illinois lawmakers have broadly sought to regulate artificial intelligence, including its presence in schools.
Department of Early Childhood
The new Department of Early Childhood will officially launch on July 1, completing one of Gov. JB Pritzker’s top priorities of his second term.
Senate Bill 1 to create the new agency passed the General Assembly with bipartisan support in 2024 and calls for consolidating a variety of early childhood services that are spread across multiple state agencies under one roof. Those include oversight and funding of preschools, childcare centers, home visiting and early intervention programs.
Pritzker tapped Teresa Ramos to direct the agency. She worked in childcare advocacy before joining the governor’s office’s education policy team.
Lawmakers appropriated $2.1 billion from the General Revenue Fund to the new agency in fiscal year 2027, which also begins July 1.
Contraband
report
The Department of Corrections will have to report more information about contraband in its facilities as the department continues to face scrutiny around substance exposures. Senate Bill 2201 requires the department to annually report data about what contraband is found, where it was discovered, how it got into the facility, and any disciplinary action that was taken as a result.
It also requires IDOC to report on medical responses and hospitalizations for staff members, including the cause.
Statewide
public defender
The bricks of the new Office of State Public Defender can begin being laid on July 1, as House Bill 3363 requires an 11-member commission to be appointed by Oct. 1. The commission will identify the costs and funding sources to establish the Office of State Public Defender. The remainder of the bill, including additional processes to set up the office, will take effect Jan. 1.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.