§ 35-10 — Adolescent Family Life Program

(a) The General Assembly finds and declares the following: (1) In Illinois, a substantial number of babies are born each year to adolescent mothers between 12 and 19 years of age. (2) A substantial percentage of pregnant adolescents have substance use disorders or live in environments in which substance use disorders occur and thus are at risk of exposing their infants to dangerous and harmful circumstances. (3) It is difficult to provide substance use disorder counseling for adolescents in settings designed to serve adults. (b) To address the findings set forth in subsection (a), and subject to appropriation, the Department may establish and fund treatment strategies to meet the developmental, social, and educational needs of high-risk pregnant adolescents and shall do the following: (1) To the maximum extent feasible and appropriate, utilize existing services and funding rather than create new, duplicative services. (2) Include plans for coordination and collaboration with existing perinatal substance use disorder services. (3) Include goals and objectives for reducing the incidence of high-risk pregnant adolescents. (4) Be culturally and linguistically appropriate to the population being served. (5) Include staff development training by substance use disorder counselors. As used in this Section, "high-risk pregnant adolescent" means a person at least 12 but not more than 18 years of age with a substance use disorder who is pregnant. (c) (Blank).

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 100-759, eff. 1-1-19 .)