Illinois poised to enact Nation’s broadest automatic sealing law
On October 30, 2025, the Illinois General Assembly approved HB 1836, making Illinois the 13th “Clean Slate” state. Illinois will also have the broadest automated record-sealing program of them all.
The Governor’s signature will launch the implementation toward an automated record-sealing process to bridge the “second chance gap” for an estimated 2.2 million people with an Illinois criminal record. After necessary preparatory measures, sealing of existing conviction and non-conviction records is scheduled to begin in January 2029.
Illinois’ law will apply to most of the misdemeanor and felony convictions for which petition-based sealing is already authorized, with the same short waiting period. In addition, Illinois will now join the large group of states for which sealing of non-conviction records is mandatory and accomplished immediately upon a favorable case disposition.
Building on a Legacy of Progress
Illinois already leads the nation with one of the most expansive petition-based sealing laws. Since 2017, when lawmakers passed HB 2373, most felony conviction records have been eligible for sealing relief, after a comparatively brief waiting period of just three years from the end of a sentence. That law marked a turning point, expanding eligibility from only nine felony convictions to nearly all, with just a few exceptions.
The new Illinois Clean Slate Act builds directly on the foundation laid by the 2017 law. Like the petition-based process, automated sealing will apply to nearly all conviction records (unless already excluded under the petition-based process) after a three-year period from the end of sentence, except for a limited set of additional ineligible offenses involving the most serious felonies. Even these additional convictions ineligible for automatic relief, however, will remain eligible for petition-based relief. (Details of the existing laws and new Clean Slate legislation can be found in the Illinois profile from the Restoration of Rights Project.)
How Illinois Got Here
How has Illinois managed to achieve such transformative criminal record reforms, twice in less than a decade? It wasn’t by accident. Progress like this came from two powerful forces working in tandem: the organized leadership and mobilization of directly impacted people and allies from across the state, and the unwavering commitment of legislative champions who turned their vision into law.
Directly Impacted Leadership and Mobilization
Illinois’ record reform movement has long been driven by directly impacted leadership. Back in 2017, the Restoring Rights and Opportunities Coalition of Illinois (RROCI) led the successful push for HB 2373. Week after week, organizers, advocates, and people directly impacted showed up in Springfield to meet with lawmakers week after week, changing hearts and minds in the state capitol and paving the way for what became the most progressive sealing law in the country.
The same grassroots energy powered the Clean Slate Illinois campaign, a statewide coalition of impacted leaders, advocates, and allies dedicated to ending permanent punishments. Led by state-based organizations, including the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments, LIVE FREE Illinois, and the Workers Center for Racial Justice, with national support from the Clean Slate Initiative, the coalition spent years mobilizing communities to insist legislators make automated record relief a reality.
Legislative Leadership and Policy Champions
The success of the Clean Slate Act is also a reflection of strong vision and leadership inside the General Assembly. The bill’s chief House sponsor, State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth, worked for years before the Clean Slate bill was even introduced. Her persistence through countless negotiations, stakeholder meetings in partnership with the Alliance for Safety and Justice, and education efforts helped secure a remarkable level of consensus: it not only made the measure unopposed by law enforcement and the courts, it was actively supported by major employer groups, including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. In the Senate, State Senator Elgie Sims, Jr, played a pivotal role in ensuring the bill’s passage, advancing the measure during the legislative veto session.
Illinois has shown once again what’s possible when directly impacted communities mobilize and legislative champions carry the measure. This partnership turns shared vision into law, proving once again that when lawmakers and communities collaborate, transformative change is possible.
What’s Next for Illinois
The work doesn’t end with the passage of the law. Over the next few years, as preparatory work is underway, Illinois agencies, advocates, lawmakers, and community partners will ensure that the automated sealing process launches smoothly in January 2029.
To guide this implementation, the Illinois Clean Slate Task Force was created under the Act to review best practices, learn from other states, and design clear communication processes between the Illinois State Police, the agency responsible for identifying and notifying courts of eligible records, and the circuit clerks, responsible for automatically sealing court records after notification by the Illinois State Police. 20 ILCS 2630/5.3(new).
The Task Force includes representatives from all corners of the process: state agencies, practitioners familiar with the petition-based system, organizations that advocate for people with records, and community members with lived experience. Their collaboration will be essential to ensuring that Clean Slate delivers on its promise, efficiently, equitably, and transparently.