State Representative Kam Buckner (D-26th Dist.) introduced legislation seeking to amend the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. The bill, HB 5625, would amend the Act’s definition of "employee" to include “every student participant in an athletic program at an institutions of higher education, but only when the student is participating in an athletic event, travel to and from an athletic event, or an organized training activity.” The proposed legislation would determine the average weekly wage by taking the total scholarship awarded to the student athlete for his or her participation in an athletic program and all other grants and subsides awarded to him or her due to their participation in the athletic program in the current academic year, or if the athlete is not injured, during the prior academic year or the following academic year, whichever is greater, and dividing that total compensation by “52”. At this time, the bill has been assigned to the Rules Committee.
