Public Act 100-1043
 
HB4442 EnrolledLRB100 17751 AXK 32926 b

    AN ACT concerning education.
 
    WHEREAS, Research-based prevention and wellness promotion
efforts that strengthen positive parenting practices and
enhance a child's resilience in the face of adversity have been
shown to have a significant impact on a child's mental health,
physical health, and educational outcomes; and
 
    WHEREAS, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
define positive parenting skills as good communication,
appropriate discipline, and responding to a child's physical
and emotional needs; and
 
    WHEREAS, Studies in the last decade have shown that
well-designed programs created to promote healthy cognitive,
emotional, and social development can improve the prospects and
quality of life of many children; and
 
    WHEREAS, Parenting programs have been shown to provide
critical information on child development and safety, promote
positive parenting behaviors, teach effective discipline
strategies, alter adverse family patterns, and reduce levels of
child abuse and neglect; and
 
    WHEREAS, Positive parenting practices are directly linked
to adaptive behaviors in children and can buffer adverse
outcomes, even amongst at-risk families; and
 
    WHEREAS, While positive parenting strategies can promote
adjustment and achievement, child abuse and neglect can
interrupt healthy development in children and can lead to
maladaptive functioning; and
 
    WHEREAS, In the first major study of child abuse and
neglect in 20 years, researchers with the National Academy of
Sciences reported that the damaging consequences of abuse can
reshape a child's brain (resulting in consequences that last
throughout his or her life), influence the child's amygdala
(the part of the brain that regulates emotions, particularly
fear and anxiety), and change how the functioning prefrontal
cortex works (the part of the brain responsible for thinking,
planning, reasoning, and decision-making), which can lead to
behavioral and academic problems; and
 
    WHEREAS, Research shows an association between child
maltreatment and a broad range of social problems, including
substance abuse, violence, criminal behavior, teenage
pregnancy, anxiety, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking,
obesity, and diabetes; and
 
    WHEREAS, Child abuse and neglect is a serious health
problem that costs the United States $103 billion annually,
which includes $33 billion in direct costs for foster care
services, hospitalization, mental health treatment, and law
enforcement and $70 billion in indirect costs, including
productivity, chronic health problems, and special education;
and
 
    WHEREAS, Nobel prize-winning economist James J. Heckman
and others have shown that for every dollar devoted to the
nurturing of young children, the need for greater government
spending on remedial education, teenage pregnancy, and prison
incarceration may be eliminated; and
 
    WHEREAS, Researchers have found that, left untreated, the
effects of child abuse and neglect can profoundly influence a
victim's physical and mental health, emotions and impulses,
achievements in school, and relationships formed as a child and
as an adult; and
 
    WHEREAS, The American Academy of Pediatrics' Psychological
Maltreatment Clinical Report posits that emotional abuse is
linked with mental illness, delinquency, aggression, school
troubles, and lifelong relationship problems in children;
these effects of ill-treatment on a child's brain and
behavioral development are not static and can be reversed with
quick intervention and positive changes in a child's
environment; the negative changes present in a child's brain
can be countered by positive brain changes that take place when
the abuse ends and when the child is given the support he or
she requires; parenting education is an effective way to
prevent abuse and mental illness before it starts; therefore
 
    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
27-23.1 as follows:
 
    (105 ILCS 5/27-23.1)  (from Ch. 122, par. 27-23.1)
    Sec. 27-23.1. Parenting education.
    (a) The State Board of Education must assist each school
district that offers an evidence-based parenting education
model. School districts may provide instruction in parenting
education for grades 6 through 12 and include such instruction
in the courses of study regularly taught therein. School
districts may give regular school credit for satisfactory
completion by the student of such courses.
    As used in this subsection (a) section, "parenting
education" means and includes instruction in the following:
        (1) Child growth and development, including prenatal
    development.
        (2) Childbirth and child care.
        (3) Family structure, function and management.
        (4) Prenatal and postnatal care for mothers and
    infants.
        (5) Prevention of child abuse.
        (6) The physical, mental, emotional, social, economic
    and psychological aspects of interpersonal and family
    relationships.
        (7) Parenting skill development.
    The State Board of Education shall assist those districts
offering parenting education instruction, upon request, in
developing instructional materials, training teachers, and
establishing appropriate time allotments for each of the areas
included in such instruction.
    School districts may offer parenting education courses
during that period of the day which is not part of the regular
school day. Residents of the school district may enroll in such
courses. The school board may establish fees and collect such
charges as may be necessary for attendance at such courses in
an amount not to exceed the per capita cost of the operation
thereof, except that the board may waive all or part of such
charges if it determines that the individual is indigent or
that the educational needs of the individual requires his or
her attendance at such courses.
    (b) Beginning with the 2019-2020 school year, from
appropriations made for the purposes of this Section, the State
Board of Education shall implement and administer a 3-year
pilot program supporting the health and wellness
student-learning requirement by utilizing a unit of
instruction on parenting education in participating school
districts that maintain grades 9 through 12, to be determined
by the participating school districts. The program is
encouraged to include, but is not be limited to, instruction on
(i) family structure, function, and management, (ii) the
prevention of child abuse, (iii) the physical, mental,
emotional, social, economic, and psychological aspects of
interpersonal and family relationships, and (iv) parenting
education competency development that is aligned to the social
and emotional learning standards of the student's grade level.
Instruction under this subsection (b) may be included in the
Comprehensive Health Education Program set forth under Section
3 of the Critical Health Problems and Comprehensive Health
Education Act. The State Board of Education is authorized to
make grants to school districts that apply to participate in
the pilot program under this subsection (b). The State Board of
Education shall by rule provide for the form of the application
and criteria to be used and applied in selecting participating
urban, suburban, and rural school districts. The provisions of
this subsection (b), other than this sentence, are inoperative
at the conclusion of the pilot program.
(Source: P.A. 84-534.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.

Effective Date: 8/23/2018