Background

About Climate Education for Illinois

Climate education in Illinois is highly variable from district to district. It is mostly on an ad-hoc basis (eg Earth Week projects). There are plenty of materials available for educators, but implementation is up to individual teachers and teachers typically do not have time allocated for this within the current curriculum.

NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), implemented since 2016 in Illinois do include some climate curriculum content. However, NGSS climate education content is only as of grade 6 and only in earth sciences. The content is focused on climate change facts, but not on action/empowerment (potentially fuelling eco anxiety). They provide little guidance and support for teachers.

A handful of individual schools have started to incorporate more climate education into their curriculum. For example, in Evanston, the elementary school district has been piloting a curriculum that gets students outdoors and focuses on learning by doing and Evanston Township High School has been incorporating climate curriculum through science and civics courses.

These examples are exceptions and the majority of school districts in Illinois provide their students little to no climate education. Without climate education legislation, these fragmented efforts cannot reach all students or happen at a pace that reflects the immediacy of the climate crisis.

HB4895 - the first step to Climate Education for IL

Bill HB4895, written by Naperville High School Students and introduced by Rep. Yang Rohr was passed into Illinois law in Summer 2024. THANK YOU to everyone who advocated for this law!

HB4895 mandates climate education in all IL public schools. It is, however, not yet funded.

CE4IL will continue to advocate for climate education and look for ways to empower educators to teach it across all subjects and grades.

The bill can be viewed here: https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/PublicActs/View/103-0837

Introducing the Illinois Climate Education Hub!

To empower teachers and educators, CE4IL partnered with the non-profits

Subject to Climate, Seven Generations Ahead (SGA)/It’s Our Future, and the Environmental Education Association of Illinois (EEAI), to launch the Illinois Climate Education Hub — a free, one-stop platform offering standards-aligned resources that integrate climate topics across all subjects and grade levels, with a strong focus on Illinois-specific issues.

The Illinois Climate Education Hub will enable educators to easily integrate climate change into existing educational standards on core subjects.

You can find the hub at www.illinoisclimateeducation.org

The IL Hub includes:

Teacher-designed lesson plans
Vetted, standards-aligned resources for all grades and subject areas (including 54 resources discussing Illinois-specific climate topics)
Professional development for educators
News articles for students that are adjustable by reading level
Teacher guides that demonstrate ways to use resources in the classroom
Climate Change Explainers, developed in partnership with MIT.

We plan to continue to expand the resources on the hub as funding becomes available.

(Subject to Climate also has hubs for New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin, Maine, New York, Connecticut and California, which can be accessed via their website)

Explore the Illinois Climate Education Hub