Public Act 0629 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB1557 Enrolled LRB096 08639 NHT 19197 b

Public Act 096-0629

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section 27-21 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/27-21) (from Ch. 122, par. 27-21)

Sec. 27-21. History of United States. 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 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 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. No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of any public school unless he has received such instruction in the history of the United States and gives evidence of having a comprehensive knowledge thereof.

(Source: P.A. 92-27, eff. 7-1-01; 93-406, eff. 1-1-04.)