2023 Illinois Compiled Statutes › Chapter 225 - PROFESSIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS › 225 ILCS 411/ - Cemetery Oversight Act. › Article 5 - General Provisions

(225 ILCS 411/Art. 5 heading)
Article 5.
General Provisions
(Article scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-1)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Cemetery Oversight Act.
(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-5)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-5. Findings and purpose.  The citizens of Illinois have a compelling interest in the expectation that their loved ones will be treated with the same dignity and respect in death as they are entitled to be treated in life. The laws of the State should provide adequate protection in upholding the sanctity of the handling and disposition of human remains and the preservation of final resting places, but without unduly restricting family, ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that the deceased be accorded equal treatment and respect for human dignity without reference to ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds, or religious affiliations.
(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-10)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-10. Declaration of public policy.  The practice of cemetery operation in the State of Illinois is hereby declared to affect the public health, safety, and well-being of its citizens and to be subject to regulation and control in the public interest. It is further declared that cemetery operation, as defined in this Act, should merit the confidence of the public and that only qualified persons shall be authorized to own, operate, manage, or otherwise control a cemetery in the State of Illinois. This Act shall be liberally construed to best carry out this purpose.
(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-15)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-15. Definitions. In this Act:
"Address of record" means the designated address recorded by the Department in the applicant's or licensee's application file or license file. The address of record for a cemetery authority shall be the permanent street address of the cemetery.
"Applicant" means a person applying for licensure under this Act as a cemetery authority, cemetery manager, or customer service employee. Any applicant or any person who holds himself or herself out as an applicant is considered a licensee for purposes of enforcement, investigation, hearings, and the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.
"Burial permit" means a permit provided by a licensed funeral director for the disposition of a dead human body.
"Care" means the maintenance of a cemetery and of the lots, graves, crypts, niches, family mausoleums, memorials, and markers therein, including: (i) the cutting and trimming of lawn, shrubs, and trees at reasonable intervals; (ii) keeping in repair the drains, water lines, roads, buildings, fences, and other structures, in keeping with a well-maintained cemetery as provided for in Section 20-5 of this Act and otherwise as required by rule; (iii) maintenance of machinery, tools, and equipment for such care; (iv) compensation of cemetery workers, any discretionary payment of insurance premiums, and any reasonable payments for workers' pension and other benefits plans; and (v) the payment of expenses necessary for such purposes and for maintaining necessary records of lot ownership, transfers, and burials.
"Cemetery" means any land or structure in this State dedicated to and used, or intended to be used, for the interment, inurnment, or entombment of human remains.
"Cemetery authority" means any individual or legal entity that owns or controls cemetery lands or property.
"Cemetery manager" means an individual directly responsible or holding himself or herself directly responsible for the operation, maintenance, development, or improvement of a cemetery that is licensed under this Act or shall be licensed pursuant to Section 10-39 of this Act, irrespective of whether the individual is paid by the licensed cemetery authority or a third party.
"Cemetery merchandise" means items of personal property normally sold by a cemetery authority not covered under the Illinois Funeral or Burial Funds Act, including, but not limited to:  (1) memorials, (2) markers, (3) monuments, (4) foundations and installations, and (5) outer burial containers.
"Cemetery operation" means to engage in any or all of the following, whether on behalf of, or in the absence of, a cemetery authority:  (i) the interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains, (ii) the sale of interment, entombment, or inurnment rights, cemetery merchandise, or cemetery services, (iii) the maintenance of interment rights ownership records, (iv) the maintenance of or reporting of interment, entombment, or inurnment records, (v) the maintenance of cemetery property, (vi) the development or improvement of cemetery grounds, or (vii) the maintenance and execution of business documents, including State and federal government reporting and the payment of taxes, for a cemetery business entity.
"Cemetery Oversight Database" means a database certified by the Department as effective in tracking the interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains.
"Cemetery services" means those services customarily performed by cemetery personnel in connection with the interment, entombment, or inurnment of a dead human body.
"Certificate of organization" means the document received by a cemetery association from the Secretary of State that indicates that the cemetery association shall be deemed fully organized as a body corporate under the name adopted and in its corporate name may sue and be sued.
"Comptroller" means the Comptroller of the State of Illinois.
"Confidential information" means unique identifiers, including a person's Social Security number, home address, home phone number, personal phone number, personal email address, personal financial information, and any other information protected by law.
"Consumer" means an individual who purchases or who is considering purchasing cemetery, burial, or cremation products or services from a cemetery authority, whether for themselves or for another person.
"Customer service employee" means an individual who has direct contact with consumers to explain cemetery merchandise, services, and interment rights and to execute the sale of those items to consumers, whether at the cemetery or an off-site location, irrespective of whether compensation is paid by the cemetery authority or a third party.
"Department" means the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
"Email address of record" means the designated email address recorded by the Department in the applicant's application file or the licensee's license file as maintained by the Department's licensure maintenance unit.
"Employee" means an individual who works for a cemetery authority where the cemetery authority  has the right to control what work is performed and the details of how the work is performed regardless of  whether federal or State payroll taxes are withheld.
"Entombment right" means the right to place individual human remains or individual cremated human remains in a specific mausoleum crypt or lawn crypt selected by a consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Family burying ground" means a cemetery in which no lots, crypts, or niches are sold to the public and in which interments, inurnments, and entombments are restricted to the immediate family or a group of individuals related to each other by blood or marriage.
"Full exemption" means an exemption granted to a cemetery authority pursuant to subsection (a) of Section 5-20.
"Funeral director" means a funeral director as defined by the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing Code.
"Grave" means a space of ground in a cemetery used or intended to be used for burial.
"Green burial or cremation disposition" means burial or cremation practices that reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and toxic chemicals ordinarily created in burial or cremation or, in the case of greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate or offset emissions. Such practices include any standards or method for burial or cremation that the Department may name by rule.
"Immediate family" means the designated agent of a person or the persons given priority for the disposition of a person's remains under the Disposition of Remains Act and shall include a person's spouse, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and siblings.
"Individual" means a natural person.
"Interment right" means the right to place individual human remains or cremated human remains in a specific underground location selected by a consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Inurnment right" means the right to place individual cremated human remains in a specific niche selected by the consumer for use as a final resting place.
"Lawn crypt" means a permanent underground crypt installed in multiple units for the entombment of human remains.
"Licensee" means a person licensed under this Act as a cemetery authority, cemetery manager, or customer service employee. Anyone who holds himself or herself out as a licensee or who is accused of unlicensed practice is considered a licensee for purposes of enforcement, investigation, hearings, and the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.
"Mausoleum crypt" means a grouping of spaces constructed of reinforced concrete or similar material constructed or assembled above the ground for entombing remains.
"Niche" means a space in a columbarium or mausoleum used, or intended to be used, for inurnment of cremated human remains.
"Partial exemption" means an exemption granted to a cemetery authority pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 5-20.
"Parcel identification number" means a unique number assigned by the Cemetery Oversight Database to a grave, plot, crypt, or niche that enables the Department to ascertain the precise location of a decedent's remains interred, entombed, or inurned after the effective date of this Act.
"Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, trustee, government or political subdivision, or other entity.
"Public cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled, or managed by the federal government, by any state, county, city, village, incorporated town, township, multi-township, public cemetery district, or other municipal corporation, political subdivision, or instrumentality thereof authorized by law to own, operate, or manage a cemetery.
"Religious burying ground" means a cemetery in which no lots, crypts, or niches are sold and in which interments, inurnments, and entombments are restricted to a group of individuals all belonging to a religious order or granted burial rights by special consideration of the religious order.
"Religious cemetery" means a cemetery owned, operated, controlled, and managed by any recognized church, religious society, association, or denomination, or by any cemetery authority or any corporation administering, or through which is administered, the temporalities of any recognized church, religious society, association, or denomination.
"Secretary" means the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation or a person authorized by the Secretary to act in the Secretary's stead.
"Term burial" means a right of interment sold to a consumer in which the cemetery authority retains the right to disinter and relocate the remains, subject to the provisions of subsection (d) of Section 35-15 of this Act.
"Trustee" means any person authorized to hold funds under this Act.
"Unique personal identifier" means the parcel identification number in addition to the term of burial in years; the numbered level or depth in the grave, plot, crypt, or niche; and the year of death for human remains interred, entombed, or inurned after the effective date of this Act. The unique personal identifier is assigned by the Cemetery Oversight Database.
(Source: P.A. 102-20, eff. 6-25-21.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-16)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-16. Address of record; email address of record. All applicants and licensees shall:
(1)  provide a valid address and email address to the     Department, which shall serve as the address of record and email address of record, respectively, at the time of application for licensure or renewal of a license; and
(2)  inform the Department of any change of address     of record or email address of record within 14 days after such change either through the Department's website or by contacting the Department's licensure maintenance unit.
(Source: P.A. 102-20, eff. 6-25-21.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-20)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-20. Exemptions.
(a) Full exemption.  Except as provided in this subsection, this Act does not apply to (1) any cemetery authority operating as a family burying ground or religious burying ground, (2) any cemetery authority that has not engaged in an interment, inurnment, or entombment of human remains within the last 10 years, or (3) any cemetery authority that is less than 3 acres. For purposes of determining the applicability of this subsection, the number of interments, inurnments, and entombments shall be aggregated for each calendar year. A cemetery authority claiming a full exemption shall apply for exempt status as provided for in Section 10-20 of this Act. A cemetery authority claiming a full exemption shall be subject to Sections 10-40, 10-55, and 10-60 of this Act. A cemetery authority that performs activities that would disqualify it from a full exemption is required to apply for licensure within one year following the date on which its activities would disqualify it for a full exemption.  A cemetery authority that previously qualified for and maintained a full exemption that fails to timely apply for licensure shall be deemed to have engaged in unlicensed practice and shall be subject to discipline in accordance with Article 25 of this Act.
(b) Partial exemption.  If a cemetery authority does not qualify for a full exemption and (1) engages in 25 or fewer interments, inurnments, or entombments of human remains for each of the preceding 2 calendar years, (2) operates as a public cemetery, or (3) operates as a religious cemetery, then the cemetery authority is partially exempt from this Act but shall be required to comply with Sections 10-23, 10-40, 10-55, 10-60, subsections (a), (b), (b-5), (c), (d), (f), (g), and (h) of Section 20-5, Sections 20-6, 20-8, 20-10, 20-12, 20-30, 20-35, 20-40, 25-3, and 25-120, and Article 35 of this Act.  Cemetery authorities claiming a partial exemption shall apply for the partial exemption as provided in Section 10-20 of this Act.  A cemetery authority that changes to a status that would disqualify it from a partial exemption is required to apply for licensure within one year following the date on which it changes its status.  A cemetery authority that maintains a partial exemption that fails to timely apply for licensure shall be deemed to have engaged in unlicensed practice and shall be subject to discipline in accordance with Article 25 of this Act.
(c) Nothing in this Act applies to the City of Chicago in its exercise of its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act or limits the authority of the City of Chicago to acquire property or otherwise exercise its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act, or requires the City of Chicago, or any person acting on behalf of the City of Chicago, to comply with the licensing, regulation, or investigation requirements of this Act in exercising its powers under the O'Hare Modernization Act.
(d) A cemetery manager and customer service employee license may be in active status only during the period that such a licensee is employed by a cemetery authority that is licensed under this Act.  In the event that a cemetery manager or customer service employee commences work for a cemetery granted an exemption under this Section, it shall be a duty of both the cemetery authority and the individual licensee to immediately notify the Department so that the license may be placed on inactive status.  During the period that a license is in inactive status, the involved person may not hold himself or herself out as licensed.  Upon returning to employment by a cemetery licensed under this Act, such a cemetery manager or customer service employee may reinstate the license to active status simply by notifying the Department and paying the applicable fee.
(Source: P.A. 102-20, eff. 6-25-21.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-25)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-25. Powers and duties of the Department. The Department shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, exercise the following functions, powers, and duties:
(1) Authorize certification programs to ascertain the     qualifications and fitness of applicants for licensing as a licensed cemetery manager or as a customer service employee to ascertain whether they possess the requisite level of knowledge for such position.
(2) Examine a licensed cemetery authority's records     from any year or any other aspects of cemetery operation as the Department deems appropriate.
(3) Investigate any and all cemetery operations.
(4) Conduct hearings on proceedings to refuse to     issue, renew, or restore licenses or to revoke, suspend, place on probation, or reprimand a licensee under this Act.
(5) Adopt rules required for the administration of     this Act.
(6) Prescribe forms to be issued for the     administration and enforcement of this Act.
(7) (Blank).
(8) Work with the Office of the Comptroller and the     Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records to exchange information and request additional information relating to a licensed cemetery authority.
(9) Investigate cemetery contracts, grounds, or     employee records.
(10) Issue licenses to those who meet the     requirements of this Act.
(11) Conduct investigations related to possible     violations of this Act.
If the Department exercises its authority to conduct investigations under this Section, the Department shall provide the cemetery authority with information sufficient to challenge the allegation.  If the complainant consents, then the Department shall provide the cemetery authority with the identity of and contact information for the complainant so as to allow the cemetery authority and the complainant to resolve the complaint directly.  Except as otherwise provided in this Act, any complaint received by the Department and any information collected to investigate the complaint shall be maintained by the Department for the confidential use of the Department and shall not be disclosed.  The Department may not disclose the information to anyone other than law enforcement officials or other regulatory agencies or persons that have an appropriate regulatory interest, as determined by the Secretary, or to a party presenting a lawful subpoena to the Department.   Information and documents disclosed to a federal, state, county, or local law enforcement agency shall not be disclosed by the agency for any purpose to any other agency or person.  A formal complaint filed against a licensee by the Department or any order issued by the Department against a licensee or applicant shall be a public record, except as otherwise prohibited by law.
(Source: P.A. 102-20, eff. 6-25-21.)
(225 ILCS 411/5-26)
(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2027)
Sec. 5-26. Confidentiality. All information collected by the Department in the course of an examination or investigation of a licensee or applicant, including, but not limited to, any complaint against a licensee filed with the Department and information collected to investigate any such complaint, shall be maintained for the confidential use of the Department and shall not be disclosed. The Department may not disclose the information to anyone other than law enforcement officials, other regulatory agencies that have an appropriate regulatory interest as determined by the Secretary, or a party presenting a lawful subpoena to the Department. Information and documents disclosed to a federal, State, county, or local law enforcement agency shall not be disclosed by the agency for any purpose to any other agency or person. A formal complaint filed against a licensee by the Department or any order issued by the Department against a licensee or applicant shall be a public record, except as otherwise prohibited by law.
(Source: P.A. 102-20, eff. 6-25-21.)