Illinois’ Sex Education Snapshot
The State of Sex Education
Advocates have taken significant action over the past seven years to advance sex education in Illinois, most recently cumulating in the introduction of three bills in 2022. Senate Bill 4049 was introduced by Senator Ram Villivalam and, if enacted, would provide local schools with grants to teach comprehensive personal health and safety education for kindergarten through fifth grade and comprehensive sexual health education in sixth through twelfth grade. House Bill 5349 and 5494, however, were also introduced and seek to change sex education from “opt out” to “opt in”, creating unnecessary barriers in young people receiving this critical instruction.
In 2021, Senate Bill 818, enrolled as Public Act 102-0522, was introduced and enacted by Senator Ram Villivalam (D-08). This law requires that if sex education is offered in schools, educators teach comprehensive sex education that is age, culturally, and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, complete, inclusive, trauma-informed, and replicates evidence-based or evidence-informed programs. Further, the law stipulates that grades K-6 is taught this education through comprehensive personal health and safety education versus comprehensive sexual health education for grades 7-12.
In 2019, House Bill 3299, introduced by Representative William Davis, which requires developmental disability facilities to provide developmentally appropriate sex education and related resources to anyone admitted, was enacted. House Bill 3550, introduced by Representative Ann Williams, was enacted and now requires sex education curriculum to include instruction on consent. Further, House Bill 246, sponsored by Representative Anna Moeller, was enacted and now requires public schools to include the contributions of LGBT people in history courses, further demonstrating legislators’ increasing recognition of the importance of inclusive curriculum.
While these legislative actions all mark significant advancements for sex education in Illinois, opponents, including the Illinois Family Institute, have routinely advocated to limit sex education. Such opposition enables the current patchwork landscape. Since Illinois schools are only required to provide limited instruction on abstinence and HIV/AIDS prevention, school districts are left to decide whether they provide sex education to youth. If a school chooses to teach sex education, curriculum is required to be comprehensive, including curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, complete, culturally appropriate, inclusive, trauma informed, and replicates evidence based or evidence infomed programs. Curriculum must also include instruction on both abstinence and contraception, consent, sexual abuse, assault awareness, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention, and teach “honor and respect” for heterosexual marriage. Further, family life education courses are required to teach the alternatives to abortion.
However, sex education curriculum must cover all potential pregnancy outcomes and include stigma-free information about abortion.
Local control over sex education presents unique challenges that have resulted in a glaring disparity regarding the quality of sex education that students receive. Such discretion allows for the implementation of policies and curriculum that stigmatize marginalized youth, such as students of color and LGBTQ youth, and presents further challenges in ensuring that low income districts have access to the resources needed to implement comprehensive sex education.
Even among districts that mandate sex education, curriculum continues to vary. Although the Chicago Public Schools system mandates sex education, a recent report found that only 28 percent of Chicago schools taught all required sex education topics in all grade levels. Community members are currently working to further understand which schools fail to meet the city’s requirements.
To address the current gaps in education, organizations, such as the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, offer youth workshops that meet the National Sexuality Education Standards. These workshops are facilitated by youth educators, adult educators, and theater artists. Right now, advocates can take action to ensure young people in their community have access to quality sex education. After contacting their local school board, advocates can determine what topics are missing from sex education, such as instruction that is culturally responsive to the needs of young people of color or instruction on topics including sexual orientation and gender identity. They can then vocalize the important need for advancing sex education requirements in their community. Further, advocates can contact their representatives to discuss the critical need for advancing comprehensive sex education requirements statewide. Advocates are encouraged to take action on pending legislation that seeks to advance or restrict the principles of comprehensive sex education. For a current overview of pending legislation, see table below. Additionally, reach out to EducateUS to get connected to local advocacy groups. Advocates are encouraged to use the SIECUS Community Action Toolkit to guide local efforts to advance sex education.
State Sex Education Policies and Requirements at a Glance
- Illinois schools are not required to teach sex education. However, if they do teach sex education it is required to be comprehensive and align with the National Sex Education Standards.
- Curriculum is required to be comprehensive, including instruction that is age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, complete, culturally appropriate, inclusive, trauma-informed, and replicates evidence-based or evidence-informed programs.
- Curriculum must emphasize abstinence until marriage. However, curriculum must also place substantial emphasis on contraception if a school chooses to teach sex education.
- Curriculum is required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity. However, curriculum must teach “honor and respect” for monogamous heterosexual marriage.
- Curriculum must include instruction on consent.
- Parents or guardians may remove their children from any or all sex education, family life programs, and/or STD/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention programs. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
- Curriculum must be medically accurate.
State House Highlights
This section highlights sex education bills that were introduced during the 2021 state legislative session as well as bills that have been introduced thus far in 2022. These proposed bills provide a brief overview of both recent and current legislative action taken to advance or restrict sex education. For a more comprehensive look at relevant legislation concerning sex education and related topics such as reproductive health care, LGBTQ rights, racial equity and justice, parental rights, bullying and harassment, mental health, assault and violence prevention, and HIV/STIs as it impacts youth, continue reading on to the “State Legislative Activity” section of Illinois’s profile.
2022-2023 Legislative Session
House Bill 5494 (pending): Prohibits instruction on certain “divisive” concepts, positive portrayals of socialism, Marxism, communism, or totalitarianism, and changes sex education to opt in versus opt out
House Bill 5349 (pending): Changes comprehensive sexual health education from opt out to opt in
Senate Bill 4049 (pending): Provides grants to local school districts and community organizations for comprehensive personal health and safety education in kindergarten through the 5th grade and comprehensive sexual health education in 6th through 12th grades.
2020-2021 Legislative Session
House Bill 319 (pending): Aims to require the General Assembly to appropriate funding for evidence based sex education programming.
House Bill 3071 (pending): Aims to require schools, if they provide sex education, to teach comprehensive sex education. An identical, companion bill was introduced in the Senate.
House Bill 3274 (pending): Aims to require sex education to include instruction on human trafficking awareness in grades 6 through 12.
House Bill 1736 (pending): Aims to require schools to provide comprehensive sex education. An identical, companion bill was introduced in the Illinois Senate.
Senate Bill 818 (enacted): Requires school districts that provide sexuality education to teach comprehensive sex education and requires each regional educational service center to appoint a comprehensive personal health and safety education and comprehensive sexual health education advisory board.
More on sex ed in Illinois…
State Law
The Illinois Critical Health Problems and Comprehensive Health Education Act states that the following topics must be addressed in all elementary and secondary schools:
[H]uman ecology and health, human growth and development; the emotional, psychological, physiological, hygienic, and social responsibilities of family life, including sexual abstinence until marriage; [and the] prevention and control of disease, including instruction in grades 6 through 12 on the prevention, transmission, and spread of [acquired immunodeficiency syndrome] AIDS.
As of 2013, schools that teach sex education are no longer required to emphasize that “abstinence is the expected norm” and are instead expected to teach both abstinence and contraception. All courses that discuss sexual intercourse are to address “the hazards of sexual intercourse . . . [and] the latest medical information citing the failure and success rates of condoms,” and include explanations of when it is “unlawful for males to have sexual relations with females under the age of 18.” Course material must also include information regarding responsible parenting.
In 2014, the Illinois State Board of Education published Public Act 98-0441 to provide further details on state sex education requirements.
In 2018, Illinois enrolled Public Act 100-0684, requiring sex education instruction to include discussion on consent, sexual harassment, and sexual assault; and Public Act 100-1043, requiring the State Board of Education to implement a pilot program including instruction on parenting education for grades 9-12, which may be included in sex education classes.
In 2021, Senate Bill 818, enrolled as Public Act 102-0522, requiring schools that offer sex education to teach comprehensive sex education that is age, culturally, and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, complete, inclusive, trauma-informed, and replicates evidence-based or evidence-informed programs.
Illinois law also provides guidelines for family life education courses. These courses are “designed to promote wholesome and comprehensive understanding of the emotional, psychological, physiological, hygienic, and social responsibility aspects of family life,” and therefore must “include the teaching of the alternatives to abortion, appropriate to the various grade levels.”
The Illinois Superintendent of Education must prepare the course of instruction for family life education, make it available to school districts, and “develop a procedure for evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of the family life courses of instruction in each local school district, including the setting of reasonable goals for reduced sexual activity, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and premarital pregnancy.”
Parents or guardians may remove their children from any or all sex education, family life programs, and/or STD/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention programs. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
State Standards
The Illinois Learning Standards for Physical Development and Health was updated in 2014 but does not provide curriculum guidance for sex education and only briefly mentions that students should be able to “explain the basic functions of the reproductive system” by grade eight and “demonstrate basic knowledge of HIV and AIDS.” The Standards also address effective communication and decision-making skills.
As a requirement of Public Act 102-0522, the State Board of Education must develop learning standards for sex education on or before August 1, 2022 that are in accordance with the National Sex Education Standards.
State Legislative Activity
State legislative activity related to sex education does not take place in isolation from the broader embroiled political and policy climate. Attacks on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) individuals, attempts to restrict or prohibit instruction on “divisive concepts” such as Critical Race Theory, and efforts to limit access to abortion care and other reproductive health care services prevent students from receiving comprehensive sex education and accessing sexual and reproductive health care services. Below are highlights of current legislative activity related to these topics.
The Illinois General Assembly is organized in a two-year cycle called a biennium. The 2022-2023 session convened January 12, 2022.
Youth Sexual Health Data
Young people are more than their health behaviors and outcomes. While data can be a powerful tool to demonstrate the sex education and sexual health care needs of young people, it is important to be mindful that these behaviors and outcomes are impacted by systemic inequities present in our society that affect an individual’s sexual health and well-being. To learn more about Illinois’ Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results, click here.
Illinois School Health Profiles Data
In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the School Health Profiles, which measure school health policies and practices and highlight which health topics were taught in schools across the country. Since the data were collected from self-administered questionnaires completed by schools’ principals and lead health education teachers, the CDC notes that one limitation of the School Health Profiles is bias toward the reporting of more positive policies and practices. In the School Health Profiles, the CDC identifies 20 sexual health education topics as critical for ensuring a young person’s sexual health. Below are key instruction highlights for secondary schools in Illinois as reported for the 2017–2018 school year.
Reported teaching all 20 critical sexual health education topics
- 17% of Illinois secondary schools taught students all 20 critical sexual health education topics in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 44.8% of Illinois secondary schools taught students all 20 critical sexual health education topics in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching about the benefits of being sexually abstinent
- 87.3% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about the benefits of being sexually abstinent in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 99.2% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about the benefits of being sexually abstinent in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching how to access valid and reliable information, products, and services related to HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy
- 74.7% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to access valid and reliable information, products, and services related to HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 95.8% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to access valid and reliable information, products, and services related to HIV, other STDs, and pregnancy in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching how to create and sustain healthy and respectful relationships
- 88.4% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to create and sustain healthy and respectful relationships in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 99.1% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to create and sustain healthy and respectful relationships in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching about preventive care that is necessary to maintain reproductive and sexual health
- 66.6% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about preventive care that is necessary to maintain reproductive and sexual health in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 94.9% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about preventive care that is necessary to maintain reproductive and sexual health in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching how to correctly use a condom
- 27.5% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to correctly use a condom in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 73.3% of Illinois secondary schools taught students how to correctly use a condom in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching about methods of contraception other than condoms
- 52.1% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about methods of contraception other than condoms in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 92.4% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about methods of contraception other than condoms in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching about sexual orientation
- 34.4% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about sexual orientation in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 61% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about sexual orientation in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported teaching about gender roles, gender identity, or gender expression
- 33.5% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about gender roles, gender identity, or gender expression in a required course in any of grades 6, 7, or 8.
- 64.9% of Illinois secondary schools taught students about gender roles, gender identity, or gender expression in a required course in any of grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.
Reported providing curricula or supplementary materials relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth
- 46.6% of Illinois secondary schools provided students with curricula or supplementary materials that included HIV, STD, or pregnancy prevention information relevant to LGBTQ youth.
(Visit the CDC’s School Health Profiles report for additional information on school health policies and practices.)
***The quality of sex education taught often reflects funding available for sex education programs. To learn more about federal funding streams, click here.