DeKalb does not have registered sex offenders living within 500 feet of a school, the minimum distance mandated by law, but there are five sex offenders living within a half-mile radius of area schools.

There are three sex offenders who live within a half-mile radius of Clinton Rossette Middle School, 650 N. First St., as well as two living within a half-mile radius of Littlejohn Elementary School, 1121 School St.

Parents should check the sex offender registration list online if they want to know where the registered offenders in their area live, said Dede Short, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

DeKalb has 26 registered sex offenders and three non-compliant offenders who have not registered their addresses with the police.

There are approximately 18,000 registered sex offenders in Illinois, Short said.

Of those offenders, 1,500 are on parole and 3,200 on probation, Short said.

Illinois is taking strides to keep communities safer by improving the state’s abilities to monitor sex offenders released from prison.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed House Bill 2386 to increase the supervision of sex offenders in order to safeguard the public.

It is not enough to just have sex-offender registration, said Rebecca Rausch, Blagojevich’s press secretary. There needs to be legislation to back it up.

House Bill 2386 creates a lifetime supervision program for the most serious sex offenders.

It also allows the Prisoner Review Board to determine the length of time the offender is monitored and what penalties inmates will face if they violate their conditions.

The legislation is not mandating every sex offender be monitored for life, Rausch said, just the worst of them.

The Illinois Department of Corrections already electronically monitors sex offenders on parole and soon will be upgrading its technology.

“We know if a subject is not in their house when they should be,” Short said.

New funding will make it possible to use Global Positioning System satellite technology to track movement of parolees, Short said. The project is called Operation Spotlight.

The state is also hiring 31 more parole officers to help keep track of sex offenders, Short said.

But tighter registration and supervision does not guarantee a sex offender will be compliant.

If a parolee is non-compliant and doesn’y register, a warrant is issued for his or her arrest, Short said.

All the registered sex offenders in Illinois are listed at the state police Web site at www.isp.state.il.us under the crime section.