Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

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105 ILCS 5/27-21

    (105 ILCS 5/27-21) (from Ch. 122, par. 27-21)
    Sec. 27-21. History of United States.

(a) History of the United States shall be taught in all public schools and in all other educational institutions in this State supported or maintained, in whole or in part, by public funds.

The teaching of history shall have as one of its objectives the imparting to pupils of a comprehensive idea of our democratic form of government and the principles for which our government stands as regards other nations, including the studying of the place of our government in world-wide movements and the leaders thereof, with particular stress upon the basic principles and ideals of our representative form of government.

The teaching of history shall include a study of the role and contributions of African Americans and other ethnic groups, including, but not restricted to, Native Americans, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hungarian, Irish, Bohemian, Russian, Albanian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, French, Scots, Hispanics, Asian Americans, etc., in the history of this country and this State. To reinforce the study of the role and contributions of Hispanics, such curriculum shall include the study of the events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great Depression.

The teaching of history shall also include teaching about Native American nations' sovereignty and self-determination, both historically and in the present day, with a focus on urban Native Americans.

In public schools only, the teaching of history shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State.

The teaching of history also shall include a study of the role of labor unions and their interaction with government in achieving the goals of a mixed free enterprise system.

Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, the teaching of history must also include instruction on the history of Illinois.

The teaching of history shall include the contributions made to society by Americans of different faith practices, including, but not limited to, Native Americans, Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, Christian Americans, Hindu Americans, Sikh Americans, Buddhist Americans, and any other collective community of faith that has shaped America.

(b) No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of any public school unless the pupils have received instruction in the history of the United States as provided in this Section and give evidence of having a comprehensive knowledge thereof, which may be administered remotely.

(c) Instructional materials that include the addition of content related to Native Americans shall be prepared by the State Superintendent of Education and made available to all school boards on the State Board of Education's Internet website no later than July 1, 2024. These instructional materials may be used by school boards as guidelines for the development of instruction under this Section; however, each school board shall itself determine the minimum amount of instructional time for satisfying the requirements of this Section. Notwithstanding subsections (a) and (b) of this Section, a school or other educational institution is not required to teach and a pupil is not required to learn the additional content related to Native Americans until instructional materials are made available on the State Board's Internet website.

Instructional materials related to Native Americans shall be developed in consultation with members of the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative who are members of a federally recognized tribe, are documented descendants of Indigenous communities, or are other persons recognized as contributing community members by the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative and who currently reside in this State.

(Source: P.A. 102-411, eff. 1-1-22; 103-422, eff. 8-4-23; 103-564, eff. 11-17-23.)