103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB3644

 

Introduced 2/9/2024, by Sen. Laura Ellman

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
105 ILCS 5/27-23.17 new

    Amends the Courses of Study Article of the School Code. Provides that, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, every public high school shall include instruction on climate change and the impacts and causes of climate change in grades 9 through 12 in specified courses. Provides that the State Board of Education shall convene a working group of students, educators, and experts in the area of climate change. Sets forth tasks for the working group concerning State learning standards. Provides that the State Superintendent of Education shall prepare and make available to school boards instructional materials and professional development training for educators that may be used as guidelines for development of the instruction. Effective immediately.


LRB103 38155 RJT 68288 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

SB3644LRB103 38155 RJT 68288 b

1    AN ACT concerning education.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The School Code is amended by adding Sections
527-23.17 as follows:
 
6    (105 ILCS 5/27-23.17 new)
7    Sec. 27-23.17. Environmental education.
8    (a) Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, every public
9high school shall include instruction on climate change and
10the impacts of climate change in grades 9 through 12 in all of
11the following courses:
12        (1) All science courses, including electives, that are
13    subject to the Illinois Science Standards or the Next
14    Generation Science Standards, including physical science,
15    life science, earth science, and engineering design.
16    Science courses under this paragraph (1) may include, but
17    are not limited to, all of the following:
18            (A) Biology.
19            (B) Geology.
20            (C) Oceanography.
21            (D) Environmental science.
22            (E) Advanced Placement Biology.
23            (F) Advanced Placement Environmental Science.

 

 

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1            (G) Zoology.
2            (H) Plant science.
3            (I) Botany.
4        (2) All courses that are subject to agricultural,
5    food, and natural resources learning standards and that
6    address food, food systems, food production, and
7    sustainability. These courses may include, but are not
8    limited to, all of the following:
9            (A) Agronomy.
10            (B) Horticulture.
11            (C) Agribusiness.
12            (D) Plant science.
13            (E) Soil science.
14        (3) All courses, including electives, that are subject
15    to the Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science in
16    civics, geography, anthropology, economics, history,
17    sociology, and psychology.
18        (4) Career and technical education courses that impact
19    or are impacted by the environment or climate change,
20    including, but not limited to, all of the following:
21            (A) Engineering.
22            (B) Business.
23            (C) Law.
24            (D) Economics.
25            (E) Consumer economics.
26    (b) The State Board of Education shall convene a working

 

 

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1group of students, educators, and experts in the area of
2climate change. The working group shall include high school
3students and classroom teachers in science, agriculture,
4social science, and relevant disciplines that fall under
5career and technical education. The working group may include
6discipline-specific experts in climate change and the impacts
7of climate change.
8    The working group shall be charged with all of the
9following tasks:
10        (1) Identifying, evaluating, and, if deemed necessary
11    by the working group, modifying State learning standards
12    that address or relate to climate change.
13        (2) Developing additional learning standards for
14    climate change and determining the placement of these
15    additional standards into the State learning standards for
16    science, social science, career and technical education,
17    and agriculture.
18        (3) Creating climate change learning standards for any
19    additional content areas that the State Board of Education
20    deems appropriate or necessary.
21        (4) If deemed helpful or appropriate by the working
22    group, developing supporting documents that list all
23    required climate change learning standards across all
24    subject areas and disciplines in a single document.
25        (5) Creating climate change learning standards for
26    each of the courses identified in paragraphs (1) through

 

 

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1    (4) of subsection (a).
2    (c) As part of the task process under subsection (b), the
3working group may use, without limitation, all of the
4following issues and themes to guide the creation of new
5learning standards and the modification of existing learning
6standards:
7        (1) The basic foundation and definition of
8    human-caused climate change.
9        (2) The disproportionate impact climate change has had
10    and will have on traditionally marginalized people in
11    local communities and communities across the world, such
12    as in the Global South.
13        (3) The disproportionate challenges vulnerable and
14    traditionally marginalized people face in relation to
15    climate change. These challenges shall include, but are
16    not limited to, extreme events, health effects, food,
17    water, livelihood security, migration and forced
18    displacement, and the loss of cultural identity.
19        (4) Business, science, technology, engineering, and
20    mathematics opportunities associated with adapting to or
21    addressing the impacts of climate change.
22        (5) The importance of creating jobs and maintaining
23    livelihoods when responding to climate change and
24    fostering a sustainable economy.
25        (6) The role that companies and consumers can play in
26    addressing climate change in the present and in the

 

 

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1    future.
2        (7) The current and future impact of climate change on
3    the local, State, national, and global level, as well as
4    the impact on individuals and communities.
5        (8) The difference between climate change mitigation
6    and adaptation to climate change.
7        (9) The role that institutions, industries,
8    corporations, governments, and citizens can play in
9    creating a sustainable environment.
10        (10) Current events, such as natural disasters, air
11    quality, and sea levels rising, and how they connect,
12    contribute, or are affected by climate change.
13        (11) How various sectors, including, but not limited
14    to, agriculture, industry, transportation, energy, and
15    commercial and residential emissions, influence climate
16    change.
17        (12) The absence of scientific controversy regarding
18    the basic facts of climate change despite political,
19    economic, or social disagreements about climate change.
20        (13) How the human relationship with the land varies
21    across cultures, world views, and philosophies.
22        (14) The relationship between climate change and
23    habitat loss, declines in biodiversity, land use,
24    pollution, populations, and overharvesting.
25        (15) The relationship between rapid industrialization,
26    carbon emissions, rapid temperature increases, and the

 

 

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1    increasing frequency of environmental and ecological
2    impacts.
3        (16) Specific procedural steps a person, school, or
4    community can take to actively address climate change.
5    The State Board of Education may add other issues and
6themes related to climate change to State learning standards
7based on input from the working group.
8    (d) The State Superintendent of Education shall prepare
9and make available to school boards instructional materials
10and professional development training for educators that may
11be used as guidelines for development of a unit of instruction
12under this Section.
 
13    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
14becoming law.