Illinois Gov J.B. Pritzker has signed a state law mandating K-12 climate change education classes across public schools in the state beginning in the 2026 to 2027 school year.
House Bill 4895 will require educators to change the coursework in public schools to include climate change. The coursework will cover the environmental and ecological consequences as well as potential solutions to mitigate the issue.
"It wasn't just about learning about climate change – that it's happening or how it's happening," said State Representative Janet Yang Rohr (D-Naperville). "A really important aspect of it was learning how to turn it around."
The bill also directs the Illinois State Board of Education to create professional development opportunities for educators themselves to be better informed on climate change.
"We could use a lot more training and educating the educators people who are actually in the classrooms teaching this," Rohr said. "It’s like an educator's educating their peers kind of model."
HB 4895 states that "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."
"Thanks to Gov. Pritzker and my colleagues in the General Assembly, Illinois will soon offer fact-based coursework and teacher preparation programs on the history and future of climate change," Rohr added.
Climate education mandate bill passed due to lobbying from one student
HB 4895 was made into law thanks in no small part to lobbying from just one individual: Grace Brady, a freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a legislative intern for Rohr's office.
"Passing this bill is a big step for creating more advocacy and student agency around climate change," Grace Brady said in a press release. "Most students know climate change is a serious issue, but not everyone knows how they can address it as a person."
In a call with the Chicago Tribune, Brady celebrated her efforts, calling it "awesome." She is majoring in sustainability and environmental science.
Brady's desire to lobby for climate change education was stoked in a course she took last year during which she was tasked with researching how the topic could be better addressed in Illinois schools, and in an internship with the environmental nonprofit Accelerate Climate Solutions.
Between these two impulses, Brady found herself grappling with the concern that climate change "was just kind of something that was touched on but not really talked about in detail [in school]."
Following this, Brady reached out to her state representative, Rohr, and together they went back and forth drafting a bill aimed at closing gaps with climate change education across the state.
Illinois joins 19 other states and Washington, D.C. that have specifically adopted what are known as "Next Generation Science Standards," which calls for middle schoolers to learn climate science and high schoolers to receive lessons on how human activity supposedly affects the climate.
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