State To Begin Licensing Cemeteries, Workers Next Month
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Three years after the reuse of burial plots in historic Burr Oak Cemetery became a national scandal, state licensing of cemeteries and cemetery employees is about to begin.
Licensing of cemeteries in Illinois will begin July 1, even though spokesman Sue Hofer said that the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has no comprehensive list of cemeteries.
Cemetery directors and employees at most cemeteries must apply for licenses by Jan. 1, 2013.
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"This is fairly intensive," Hofer said, and said those licensed must pass a test. She said it is the last portion of a 2010 law to be enforced.
Cemeteries in which few or no burials take place can get partial or full exemptions.
Those with partial exemptions need not have a cemetery director or employees that are licensed; those cemeteries must average fewer than 25 burials a year.
Partially-exempt cemeteries must still provide price lists of services to those seeking to bury someone.
Those cemeteries qualifying for full exemptions must be smaller than three acres in size, family cemeteries, or those in which no burials have taken place for at least 10 years.
