NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch was featured in the Naperville Sun's story (August 23, 2024) on Illinois's new climate change education law.
Signed into law on August 9, 2024, the new law requires "every public school shall provide instruction on climate change, which shall include, but not be limited to, identifying the environmental and ecological impacts of climate change on individuals and communities and evaluating solutions for addressing and mitigating the impact of climate change," as NCSE previously reported.
The law also provides, "The State Board of Education shall, subject to appropriation, prepare and make available multi-disciplinary instructional resources and professional learning opportunities for educators that may be used to meet the requirements of this subsection." In the original version of the bill, such instructional resources and learning opportunities were not contingent on further appropriations.
Branch put the law in national context, noting that although practically all states now include climate change in their state science standards, Illinois is now the third state, after Connecticut and California, to require climate change education as a matter of statute. Such laws are "really powerful symbolism," he suggested. "It shows that the legislature has recognized that there's a need for climate change education."
He added, "I really hope the legislature follows up by making those appropriations … to make these resources and training opportunities available to their teachers."
