SB2354eng 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB2354 Engrossed LRB103 28361 RJT 54741 b

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 adding Section 2-3.196 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/2-3.196 new)

Sec. 2-3.196. Science in Elementary Schools Working Group.

(a) The State Board of Education shall create the Science in Elementary Schools Working Group. The State Board of Education shall appoint science and health education specialists, educators or former educators who teach or have taught the subject of science or health, medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy or osteopathic medicine, parents, registered nurses, chiropractors, exercise physiologists, and physical therapists to the Working Group.

The members of the Working Group shall serve without compensation.

(b) The State Board of Education shall provide administrative support to the Working Group.

(c) By June 1, 2024, the Working Group shall create a crosswalk and alignment of the current Illinois Learning Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards adopted by the State Board of Education and the Illinois Learning Standards for Science, with links to available resources so elementary teachers have access to high quality, age-appropriate, and free educational materials that are centered on anatomy, physiology and nutrition to empower students with the knowledge of their own bodies and to care for their own health and well-being throughout their lives.

(d) The Working Group shall focus its recommendations on how to empower students with the knowledge to adequately understand their own bodies and care for their own health and well-being throughout their lives, with the idea that science education is more human-centered. The Working Group shall additionally focus on connecting this human-centered science education with other sciences as students advance to other areas of their science education, such as chemistry, biology, and physics, taught at later grade levels.

(e) The Working Group shall make recommendations to the State Board of Education on updating its science standards by December 31, 2025. By December 31, 2030, the State Board of Education shall review and provide updates as appropriate to the crosswalk and alignment documents and elementary storylines. The State Board of Education shall conduct these reviews and provide these updates, at a minimum, of every 5 years thereafter.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.