Illinois: Military Education & Training Applies to Professional Licensing Standards

On February 6, 2013, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn ordered that his state's licensing boards consider military training & education in issuing professional licenses:

"Executive Order Applying Relevent Military Education and Training Obtained by Illinois Service Members to Professional Licensing Standards

WHEREAS, the veterans’ unemployment rate in Illinois runs consistently higher than the national average, and the unemployment rate for female veterans in Illinois in the 18 to 24 year-old age range is twice that of non-veteran women in the same age range; and

WHEREAS, approximately 35,000 Illinois service members will leave the military between now and 2016, returning to civilian life to face a difficult transition in a recovering economy; and

WHEREAS, Public Act 097-0710, the Expedited Licensure for Service Members and Spouses Act (the “Act”) requires that “[a]ll relevant training provided by the military and completed by a service member shall be credited to that service member as meeting any training or education requirement under any applicable occupational or professional licensing Act, provided that the training or education is determined . . . to be substantially equivalent to that required under any applicable Act and is not otherwise contrary to any other licensure requirement”; and

WHEREAS, as the Act recognizes, training and education acquired during military service may be relevant to requirements for professional and occupational licensure, but, to date, there has not been a process or mechanism that would allow such training and education to be considered for purposes of state licensure requirements; and

WHEREAS, further review and clarification of gaps between, on the one hand, military training and education, and, on the other hand, requirements for state professional and occupational licensure to which such training and education may be relevant, will allow educational institutions throughout Illinois to design programs that will enable service members to bridge such gaps;

THEREFORE, I, Pat Quinn, Governor of the State of Illinois, pursuant to the supreme executive authority vested in me by Article V of the Illinois Constitution, do hereby order as follows:

1. Definitions
   
   
   1. “State licensing agency” means any department of the state that issues occupational or professional licenses.
   2. “Service member” means any person who, at the time of application for licensure to any state licensing agency, is an active duty member of the United States Armed Forces or any reserve component of the United States Armed Forces or the National Guard of any state, commonwealth, or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia, and shall also include any veteran whose active duty service concluded within the preceding two years before submitting his or her application for licensure.


2. Creation
   
   
   1. There is hereby established an assessment process for applying military training and education to state licensure requirements in the State of Illinois.


3. Purpose
   
   
   1. It is the intent of this Order to establish a statewide mechanism and process for determining how training and education acquired by service members during service in the military may be applied towards requirements for state licensure in certain civilian fields when they transition back into our communities as veterans. As set forth herein, all state licensing agencies are directed to assist in identifying gaps between, on the one hand, military education and training that is potentially relevant to a civilian field for which licensure is required, and, on the other hand, state licensure requirements in that field. Identifying such gaps will enable educational institutions to design programs (for subsequent approval by the relevant state licensing agency), through which service members may obtain any additional training and education necessary to obtain state licensure in the relevant field.


4. Duties
   
   
   1. In addition to the state licensing agencies, the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, (“DVA”), the Illinois Department of Military Affairs (“DMA”), and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (“IDES”) are directed to participate in implementing this Order. The Director of DVA shall be responsible for coordinating efforts to implement this Order.
   2. Within 90 days of the effective date of this Order, DVA, DMA, IDES and all state licensing agencies shall collaborate to compile a list of professional and occupational fields requiring state licensure whose requirements for licensure may overlap with training and education acquired by service members during military service. To the extent possible, the list shall include information relevant to bridging the gap between military training and education relevant to each listed field and state licensure requirements relevant to that field, including but not limited to: the extent to which service members are likely to have obtained education and training in the military that is relevant to the listed field; statewide demand for professional or occupational services in the listed field; and the availability of resources to bridge gaps between relevant military training and education and state licensure in the listed field.
   3. Additionally, within 90 days of obtaining or receiving information detailing military training or education potentially relevant to a given career field from the Director of DVA or either directly or indirectly from the U.S. Department of Defense, any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and/or DMA, the relevant state licensing agency shall either: (i) independently identify any gaps between the military training and education identified as potentially relevant to the field and the Illinois state licensing requirements for that career field; (ii) submit documentation to the relevant governing board to identify any such gaps; or (iii) identify the specific need for additional information required in order to make a final determination as to any such gaps.
   4. Finally, within 30 days of its determination with regard to the gap between military training and education relevant to a given career field and the requirements for licensure in that field, the relevant state licensing agency shall submit to the Director of DVA information detailing any additional training that must be completed by a service member in order to bridge the gap to obtain a state license. Such information shall be posted on DVA’s website in order to aid educational institutions in building and obtaining approval for gap-bridging programs, as well as to aid service members in identifying outstanding requirements for licensure in that field...."

Read the full text here, and consider whether YOUR governor might want to do the same!

Illionois Army and Air National Guard Legal Assistance for Soldiers and Airmen

The Illionois Army and Air National Guard provides some legal help to servicemembers, veterans and their families. According to its Legal Assistance for Soldiers and Airmen page:

"Illinois National Guard judge advocates provide legal assistance to military personnel, retirees and their qualified dependents in accordance with applicable Army and Air Force legal assistance regulations. Legal assistance available to traditional (part-time, M-Day Soldiers) National Guard Soldiers/Airmen primarily consists of:

• Pre-mobilization legal planning
• Preparation of simple wills and powers of attorney
• Briefing and counseling on the Soldiers and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940
• Reemployment Rights

Traditional Guard Soldiers/Airmen seeking legal assistance services should contact their command's legal office. Legal Assistance is by appointment only. For information on making an appointment, contact the Illinois Department of Military Affairs, Judge Advocate General's office by phone at 217-761-3510, DSN: 555-3510, or e-mail.mailto:jagil@il.ngb.army.mil

Illinois National Guard judge advocates cannot represent service members in criminal or civil courts.

The webpage suggests that the help is not limited to Illinois Guard members only, but it may be available to servicemembers and veterans generally, which is a pretty generous offer. It is not general-purpose legal help, but focussed on the issues mentioned above; it may be unreasonable to expect any office to handle every legal matter. For more information, read the  Legal Assistance for Soldiers and Airmen page.

Kudos to the Illionois Guard for this program!

Illinois Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

Illinois provides Legal Assistance to Military Personnel in a variety of ways.

For the Warrior Community

Illinois Army and Air National Guard personnel, as well as their families, may wish to first consult the Illinois Army and Air National Guard Judge Advocate General's Office Legal Resources web page. Under some conditions, it may also "... provide legal assistance to military personnel, retirees and their qualified dependents in accordance with applicable Army and Air Force legal assistance regulations" so this may be a resource all members of the warrior community to look.

Active duty service members may wish to go first to Armed Forces Legal Assistance's nice online database to "locate active duty legal activities offering general legal services within the continental United States". A query for the state of Illinois is here

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else. And in this connection, let me admire and recommend the Illinois Legal Aid website: http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/

To try it out, I went there, typed "military deployment" in the "What's your legal problem?" field, and hit Search! It replied with five useful and relevant articles. Good, but was that a fluke?

I tried again, typing in "veteran" and giving it zip code 60515. It came back with more relevant article PLUS information on a legal services agency near that zip code. More good!

Then I noticed the video library AND instructions in Spanish. Well Done!

The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) has similar helpful resources, such as a Legal Information database. Of especial interest to the warrior community is its page on Legal Information: Laws Protecting Military Personnel. This outlines a number of important protections for the warrior community. It concludes with two suggestions on how to get further help if you really need or prefer to have professional assistance.

• "If you have a legal problem, assistance in finding attorneys is available through the Illinois State Bar Association's Illinois Lawyer Finder Service. Through a lawyer referral service, you will be given the name of an attorney in your area. For the initial half-hour consultation the lawyer will reduce rates to not more than $15. After the first half-hour, regular fees will apply."
  (Note that this ISBA's Lawyer Finder page at includes "Veterans" among the "Fields of Practice" you can search on!)
• "Any area military base can provide assistance to servicemembers and their families through the Legal Assistance Office."
  That webpage has phone numbers for all the above but let me suggest you get them from the page itself since if I copied them here, there's the chance they might go out of date.

The Chicago Bar Association also sponsors a Lawyer Referral Service and other legal assistance facilities, including a monthly Call-A-Lawyer program, an In-Court Lawyer Referral Program for some traffic & criminal matters
a Matrimonial Fee Arbitration Project and several more.

The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans here.

For Lawyers

The Illinois State Bar Association has a Standing Committee on Military Affairs that has conducted a number of projects, such as "Military Family Law: Tips and Traps" CLE of which a recording may be available here.

Illinois Pro Bono is seeking Pro Bono Assistance for Illinois servicemembers, to deliver pro bono legal assistance in civil cases to active-duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their eligible family members, as part of the ABA Military Pro Bono Project. Please see this detailed notice, including a broad range of practice areas and skills. Note where it says "We are looking for Illinois attorneys and firms to register with our website to be offered pro bono opportunities when they arise. We are in particular need of family law practitioners. Please visit http://www.militaryprobono.org/ for more information and to sign up."

Attorneys interested in pro bono generally can check out http://www.illinoisprobono.org/ and the Chicago Bar Assocation's Pro Bono page

It is very likely that there are other Illinois programs, sponsored by local bar associations, law schools, and others. Anyone with more information on these or other programs are invited to contact me; the most convenient way is to add in a comment below. The purpose is service!

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See also

• ABA Military Pro Bono Project
• State-by-state list of LAMP programs