Working for Illinois Caucus

During the General Assembly’s summer break, 97th District State Rep. Harry Benton (Plainfield) has stayed fairly busy, as he worked with interns on gathering feedback from constituents as well as working on ideas for legislation. He says one of the interns worked with him on a bill that would help college students dealing with a mental health issue.

House Bill 4111 was filed by Benton on September 2 and would amend the Public Higher Education Act, requiring public universities in the state to offer full refunds on tuition and prorated refunds on room and board costs paid by the student or their family if a student leaves the university under extenuating circumstances during an active semester.

"One of my interns came up with a great idea and we worked together on it, changed some language, and ended up getting it filed to try to help out with some students that are going through mental health concerns. And if they end up leaving college or a university that they don’t get charged for that semester if they leave within a certain amount of time because that’s just one more financial burden that they put on themselves while they’re already going through something."

Benton says he spoke to a student who told him about leaving school following the death of one of his classmates and good friends, and he had lost out on his tuition costs as a result of leaving during the school year. Benton says this bill will help alleviate the financial burden that students would face while they are dealing with other personal issues.