IL- Governor signs law to guard day cares; old law's sweep excluded many

Another law from the bag of "sounds good laws" as this protects no one nor did they even have a problem to start with. In the theme of residency laws spawned from a personal dislike for certain persons rather than a need to protect someone (used as a pretext to get this passed). The entire concept of thinking that forcing one to live xx feet from somewhere provides protection is an insult to intelligence. If someone is bent on commiting a crime, sexual or otherwise, no form of proximity law is going to stop them. This accomplishes no more than wasting taxpayer resources and funds enforcing it.

9-9-2008 Illinois:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has signed a bill that resulted from a News-Democrat investigation that revealed that hundreds of child sex offenders live within 500 feet of private, state-licensed day cares.

The newspaper's Feb. 17 stories also reported that a state law adopted in 2006 specifically aimed at keeping child sex offenders at least 500 feet from these private homes was faulty and in effect applied only to a few of the state's thousands of licensed, private day cares.

Blagojevich signed the new bill into law late last month. It covers private day cares licensed for three or more children, which would include nearly all that are licensed.

"While we now have an additional strong law dealing with sex offenders and private day care homes, it's up to the community to be vigilant and press their local law enforcement officials to enforce the new statute," the bill's Senate sponsor, Sen Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, said Monday.

"Like in terrorism, child sex offenders need to be watched," he said.

The News-Democrat published stories under the headline "Day-care dangers" based on a computer review of more than 4,000 private day-care operations. It found that more than 700 licensed homes, most of which were in Chicago, were located within 500 feet of a registered child sex offender.

However, the 2006 law that was then in effect had a glitch -- it applied only to private homes that were licensed for nine or more children. Because of a regulation requiring an assistant if a home had more than eight children, few of the private homes had more than eight children and were not covered by the old statute.

Dillard said that the key to protecting children under the new law is local police.

"For situations that set off a red flag, local law enforcement officials -- who are already overburdened -- can focus on the new sex offenders statute," he said.

"I commend the Belleville News-Democrat for perseverance on behalf of the safety of our children," Dillard added.

The investigation covered 544 day cares in St. Clair and Madison counties. Of this number, 37 were found to be within 500 feet of a registered child sex offender. A total of 44 offenders were found to be too close to these day cares.

In Chicago, 2,847 day cares were checked and 673, or 24 percent, were found to be within 500 feet of a child offender.

The investigation used lists of licensed day cares supplied by the Department of Children and Family Services and compared them with computerized maps listing the addresses of offenders on a Web site maintained by the Illinois State Police.

..News Source.. by GEORGE PAWLACZYK AND BETH HUNDSDORFER