Public Act 100-1043

HB4442 Enrolled LRB100 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.