Bill Text: IL SB1557 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Enrolled


Bill Title: Amends the School Code. Requires every public elementary school and high school to include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of almost 2,000,000 Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great Depression, beginning in 1929 and ending in the mid-1940's. Allows the State Superintendent of Education to prepare and make available to all school boards instructional materials. Provides that each school board shall itself determine the minimum amount of instruction time that shall qualify as a unit of instruction. Effective January 1, 2010.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Passed) 2009-08-24 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 96-0629 [SB1557 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-SB1557-Enrolled.html



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1 AN ACT concerning education.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section
5 27-21 as follows:
6 (105 ILCS 5/27-21) (from Ch. 122, par. 27-21)
7 Sec. 27-21. History of United States. History of the United
8 States shall be taught in all public schools and in all other
9 educational institutions in this State supported or
10 maintained, in whole or in part, by public funds. The teaching
11 of history shall have as one of its objectives the imparting to
12 pupils of a comprehensive idea of our democratic form of
13 government and the principles for which our government stands
14 as regards other nations, including the studying of the place
15 of our government in world-wide movements and the leaders
16 thereof, with particular stress upon the basic principles and
17 ideals of our representative form of government. The teaching
18 of history shall include a study of the role and contributions
19 of African Americans and other ethnic groups including but not
20 restricted to Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hungarian, Irish,
21 Bohemian, Russian, Albanian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, French,
22 Scots, Hispanics, Asian Americans, etc., in the history of this
23 country and this State. To reinforce the study of the role and

SB1557 Enrolled - 2 - LRB096 08639 NHT 19197 b
1 contributions of Hispanics, such curriculum shall include the
2 study of the events related to the forceful removal and illegal
3 deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great
4 Depression. The teaching of history also shall include a study
5 of the role of labor unions and their interaction with
6 government in achieving the goals of a mixed free enterprise
7 system. No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of
8 any public school unless he has received such instruction in
9 the history of the United States and gives evidence of having a
10 comprehensive knowledge thereof.
11 (Source: P.A. 92-27, eff. 7-1-01; 93-406, eff. 1-1-04.)
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