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 science.
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 goes beyond NGSS.
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 be scaled.
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: Public Act 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 designed to help Illinois educators integrate climate education into their classrooms.
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)