Public Act 101-0341
 
SB1601 EnrolledLRB101 09554 AXK 54652 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 changing Section
27-21 as follows:
 
    (105 ILCS 5/27-21)  (from Ch. 122, par. 27-21)
    Sec. 27-21. History of United States. History of the United
States shall be taught in all public schools and in all other
educational institutions in this State supported or
maintained, in whole or in part, by public funds. The teaching
of history shall have as one of its objectives the imparting to
pupils of a comprehensive idea of our democratic form of
government and the principles for which our government stands
as regards other nations, including the studying of the place
of our government in world-wide movements and the leaders
thereof, with particular stress upon the basic principles and
ideals of our representative form of government. The teaching
of history shall include a study of the role and contributions
of African Americans and other ethnic groups including but not
restricted to Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hungarian, Irish,
Bohemian, Russian, Albanian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, French,
Scots, Hispanics, Asian Americans, etc., in the history of this
country and this State. To reinforce the study of the role and
contributions of Hispanics, such curriculum shall include the
study of the events related to the forceful removal and illegal
deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great
Depression. The teaching of history also shall include a study
of the role of labor unions and their interaction with
government in achieving the goals of a mixed free enterprise
system. Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, the teaching
of history must also include instruction on the history of
Illinois. No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of
any public school unless he has received such instruction in
the history of the United States and gives evidence of having a
comprehensive knowledge thereof.
(Source: P.A. 96-629, eff. 1-1-10.)