House Bill 4895, Illinois's first climate change education bill to pass the legislature, was signed into law by Governor J. B. Pritzker on August 9, 2024.
As passed, the bill provides that, "Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, every public school shall provide instruction on climate change, which shall include, but not be limited to, identifying the environmental and ecological impacts of climate change on individuals and communities and evaluating solutions for addressing and mitigating the impact of climate change and shall be in alignment with State learning standards, as appropriate. The State Board of Education shall, subject to appropriation, prepare and make available multi-disciplinary instructional resources and professional learning opportunities for educators that may be used to meet the requirements of this subsection."
The provisions of the bill as passed are substantially less ambitious than the bill as introduced. As introduced, the bill would have required every public high school in Illinois to "include in its curriculum a unit of instruction addressing climate change in either a required science class or a required social studies class." It would also have required instruction on climate change to be included in all high school courses in science, agriculture, social science, and relevant career and technical education courses. The state superintendent of education would have been charged with preparing appropriate instructional materials and professional development training for educators.
Before the bill was signed, Northern Public Radio (July 12, 2024) interviewed Grace Brady, a recent high school graduate from Naperville, Illinois, who "created and helped write" the bill. "I felt unsatisfied with the amount of education on climate change," Brady explained. In researching possible remedies, she added, "I found that most people want climate change education, most students do. And I found that it was important that climate change education is integrated in different courses." Pursuing the project required "quite a bit of persistence, being flexible, and working with the different stakeholders." She advised her fellow students concerned about climate change education to "stay persistent, stay curious, ask questions, and just keep going on whatever you're passionate about."
Two other climate change education bills, Senate Bill 3644 and House Bill 4319, died in committee when the legislature adjourned.
