§ 20-6

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027) Sec. 20-6. Cemetery Oversight Database. (a) Within 10 business days after an interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains, the cemetery manager shall cause a record of the interment, entombment, or inurnment to be entered into the Cemetery Oversight Database. The requirement of this subsection (a) also applies in any instance in which human remains are relocated. (b) Within 9 months after the effective date of this Act, the Department shall certify a database as the Cemetery Oversight Database. Upon certifying the database, the Department shall: (1) provide reasonable notice to cemetery authorities identifying the database; and (2) immediately upon certification, require each cemetery authority to use the Cemetery Oversight Database as a means of complying with subsection (a). (c) In certifying the Cemetery Oversight Database, the Department shall ensure that the database: (1) provides real-time access through an Internet connection or, if real-time access through an Internet connection becomes unavailable due to technical problems with the Cemetery Oversight Database incurred by the database provider or if obtaining use of an Internet connection would be an undue hardship on the cemetery authority, through alternative mechanisms, including, but not limited to, telephone; (2) is accessible to the Department and to cemetery managers in order to ensure compliance with this Act and in order to provide any other information that the Department deems necessary; (3) requires cemetery authorities to input whatever information required by the Department; (4) maintains a real-time copy of the required reporting information that is available to the Department at all times and is the property of the Department; and (5) contains safeguards to ensure that all information contained in the Cemetery Oversight Database is secure. (d) A cemetery authority may rely on the information contained in the Cemetery Oversight Database as accurate and is not subject to any administrative penalty or liability as a result of relying on inaccurate information contained in the database. (e) The Cemetery Oversight Database provider shall indemnify cemetery authorities against all claims and actions arising from illegal, willful, or wanton acts on the part of the Database provider. The Cemetery Oversight Database provider shall at all times maintain an electronic backup copy of the information it receives pursuant to subsection (a). (f) In the event the provider of the database imposes a fee for entries into the database, the fee shall be paid directly by the Department to the provider, and the fee may not be imposed upon cemetery authorities making entries into the database. However, the provider need not refund any entry fees paid by cemetery authorities prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10; 97-679, eff. 2-6-12 .)