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1    AN ACT concerning education.
 
2    WHEREAS, Research-based prevention and wellness promotion
3efforts that strengthen positive parenting practices and
4enhance a child's resilience in the face of adversity have been
5shown to have a significant impact on a child's mental health,
6physical health, and educational outcomes; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
8define positive parenting skills as good communication,
9appropriate discipline, and responding to a child's physical
10and emotional needs; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Studies in the last decade have shown that
12well-designed programs created to promote healthy cognitive,
13emotional, and social development can improve the prospects and
14quality of life of many children; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Parenting programs have been shown to provide
16critical information on child development and safety, promote
17positive parenting behaviors, teach effective discipline
18strategies, alter adverse family patterns, and reduce levels of
19child abuse and neglect; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Positive parenting practices are directly linked
21to adaptive behaviors in children and can buffer adverse
22outcomes, even amongst at-risk families; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, While positive parenting strategies can promote
2adjustment and achievement, child abuse and neglect can
3interrupt healthy development in children and can lead to
4maladaptive functioning; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In the first major study of child abuse and
6neglect in 20 years, researchers with the National Academy of
7Sciences reported that the damaging consequences of abuse can
8reshape a child's brain (resulting in consequences that last
9throughout his or her life), influence the child's amygdala
10(the part of the brain that regulates emotions, particularly
11fear and anxiety), and change how the functioning prefrontal
12cortex works (the part of the brain responsible for thinking,
13planning, reasoning, and decision-making), which can lead to
14behavioral and academic problems; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Research shows an association between child
16maltreatment and a broad range of social problems, including
17substance abuse, violence, criminal behavior, teenage
18pregnancy, anxiety, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking,
19obesity, and diabetes; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Child abuse and neglect is a serious health
21problem that costs the United States $103 billion annually,
22which includes $33 billion in direct costs for foster care

 

 

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1services, hospitalization, mental health treatment, and law
2enforcement and $70 billion in indirect costs, including
3productivity, chronic health problems, and special education;
4and
 
5    WHEREAS, Nobel prize-winning economist James J. Heckman
6and others have shown that for every dollar devoted to the
7nurturing of young children, the need for greater government
8spending on remedial education, teenage pregnancy, and prison
9incarceration may be eliminated; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Researchers have found that, left untreated, the
11effects of child abuse and neglect can profoundly influence a
12victim's physical and mental health, emotions and impulses,
13achievements in school, and relationships formed as a child and
14as an adult; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The American Academy of Pediatrics' Psychological
16Maltreatment Clinical Report posits that emotional abuse is
17linked with mental illness, delinquency, aggression, school
18troubles, and lifelong relationship problems in children;
19these effects of ill-treatment on a child's brain and
20behavioral development are not static and can be reversed with
21quick intervention and positive changes in a child's
22environment; the negative changes present in a child's brain
23can be countered by positive brain changes that take place when

 

 

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1the abuse ends and when the child is given the support he or
2she requires; parenting education is an effective way to
3prevent abuse and mental illness before it starts; therefore
 
4    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
5represented in the General Assembly:
 
6    Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section
727-23.1 as follows:
 
8    (105 ILCS 5/27-23.1)  (from Ch. 122, par. 27-23.1)
9    Sec. 27-23.1. Parenting education.
10    (a) The State Board of Education must assist each school
11district that offers an evidence-based parenting education
12model. School districts may provide instruction in parenting
13education for grades 6 through 12 and include such instruction
14in the courses of study regularly taught therein. School
15districts may give regular school credit for satisfactory
16completion by the student of such courses.
17    As used in this subsection (a) section, "parenting
18education" means and includes instruction in the following:
19        (1) Child growth and development, including prenatal
20    development.
21        (2) Childbirth and child care.
22        (3) Family structure, function and management.
23        (4) Prenatal and postnatal care for mothers and

 

 

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1    infants.
2        (5) Prevention of child abuse.
3        (6) The physical, mental, emotional, social, economic
4    and psychological aspects of interpersonal and family
5    relationships.
6        (7) Parenting skill development.
7    The State Board of Education shall assist those districts
8offering parenting education instruction, upon request, in
9developing instructional materials, training teachers, and
10establishing appropriate time allotments for each of the areas
11included in such instruction.
12    School districts may offer parenting education courses
13during that period of the day which is not part of the regular
14school day. Residents of the school district may enroll in such
15courses. The school board may establish fees and collect such
16charges as may be necessary for attendance at such courses in
17an amount not to exceed the per capita cost of the operation
18thereof, except that the board may waive all or part of such
19charges if it determines that the individual is indigent or
20that the educational needs of the individual requires his or
21her attendance at such courses.
22    (b) Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, from
23appropriations made for the purposes of this Section, the State
24Board of Education shall implement and administer a 3-year
25pilot program supporting the health and wellness
26student-learning requirement by utilizing a unit of

 

 

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1instruction on parenting education in participating school
2districts that maintain grades 9 through 12, to be determined
3by the participating school districts. The program is
4encouraged to include, but is not be limited to, instruction on
5(i) family structure, function, and management, (ii) the
6prevention of child abuse, (iii) the physical, mental,
7emotional, social, economic, and psychological aspects of
8interpersonal and family relationships, and (iv) parenting
9education competency development that is aligned to the social
10and emotional learning standards of the student's grade level.
11Instruction under this subsection (b) may be included in the
12Comprehensive Health Education Program set forth under Section
133 of the Critical Health Problems and Comprehensive Health
14Education Act. The State Board of Education is authorized to
15make grants to school districts that apply to participate in
16the pilot program under this subsection (b). The State Board of
17Education shall by rule provide for the form of the application
18and criteria to be used and applied in selecting participating
19urban, suburban, and rural school districts. The provisions of
20this subsection (b), other than this sentence, are inoperative
21at the conclusion of the pilot program.
22(Source: P.A. 84-534.)
 
23    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
24becoming law.