Bill Text: IL HB2184 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Creates the Freedom of Education Act. Makes findings. Provides that no public school district or public institution of higher education shall direct, require, or otherwise compel a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to specified tenets. Provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule to the contrary, a school board, parent, legal guardian, or student has the right to object to and refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the specified tenets. Provides that school boards have to review and resolve objections to the school curriculum. Provides a list of ways to remedy objections. Provides that a school board may submit a certified question to the applicable board of elections to approve or disapprove of funding the curriculum. Provides that, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no distinction or classification of students may be made on account of race or color; however, nothing in this provision may be construed to prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic data by public school districts or public institutions of higher education. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2023-03-16 - Added Co-Sponsor Rep. Chris Miller [HB2184 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB2184-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB2184 Introduced , by Rep. Adam M. Niemerg SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
New Act
Creates the Freedom of Education Act. Makes findings. Provides that no public school district or public institution of higher education shall direct, require, or otherwise compel a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to specified tenets. Provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule to the contrary, a school board, parent, legal guardian, or student has the right to object to and refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the specified tenets. Provides that school boards have to review and resolve objections to the school curriculum. Provides a list of ways to remedy objections. Provides that a school board may submit a certified question to the applicable board of elections to approve or disapprove of funding the curriculum. Provides that, notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, no distinction or classification of students may be made on account of race or color; however, nothing in this provision may be construed to prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic data by public school districts or public institutions of higher education. Makes other changes. Effective immediately.
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STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT MAY APPLY
A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Freedom of Education Act.
Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly makes the
following findings:
(1) Administrators, educators, support staff, and
students in all public elementary and secondary schools
and in all public institutions of higher education shall
respect the dignity of others, acknowledge the right of
others to express differing opinions, and foster and
defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and
instruction, freedom of speech, freedom of association,
and the pursuit of rational, objective truths.
(2) Instructional pedagogies that exacerbate divisions
in society on the basis of race, biological sex,
ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other
criteria that are contrary to the unity of the nation are
counterproductive to the well-being of this State, its
citizens, and its students.
(3) Under Article X of the Illinois Constitution, the
State shall provide for an efficient system of high

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quality public educational institutions and services. The
State has the primary responsibility for financing the
system of public education.
(4) A high quality educational institution and service
is fundamentally undermined when parents cannot trust the
quality of education provided to their children. When a
parent or legal guardian of a student identifies a
curriculum in public schools that the parent or legal
guardian believes undermines the ability of the student to
succeed and thrive or where an established curriculum is
fostering division or is factually inaccurate, that can
prevent a school from meeting the State's constitutional
goals for education for each student.
(5) The curriculum needs of students will necessarily
be diverse, and learning standards and guidance set at the
State level may be incapable of fully serving student
needs within an individual school district.
(6) Parents and legal guardians for students need to
be further empowered to ensure that they have full access
to and transparency regarding the curriculum their
students are receiving in the classroom. School boards
need to be more responsive regarding curriculum access,
transparency, and oversight when a parent, legal guardian,
or student has raised concerns regarding the substance of
the curriculum being presented in the classroom so that
students are able to realize their best potential and so

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that classroom settings are not adopting a curriculum that
fosters hate and division among current students or that
encourages students to hate or despise their nation.
Section 10. Prohibitions.
(a) No public school district or public institution of
higher education shall direct, require, or otherwise compel a
student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the
following tenets:
(1) That any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or
natural origin is inherently superior or inferior.
(2) That individuals should be adversely treated on
the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color,
or national origin.
(3) That individuals, by virtue of their sex, race,
ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin, are
inherently responsible for actions committed in the past
by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity,
religion, color, or national origin.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or
administrative rule to the contrary, a school board, parent,
legal guardian, or student has the right to object to and
refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study
that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to
personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the tenets
identified in paragraphs (1), (2), or (3) of subsection (a) in

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any public school district or public institution of higher
education.
(c) A school board has the duty to ensure that parents,
legal guardians, students, and members of the public can
access the public school curriculum in a manner that provides
clear access, immediacy, and transparency to the curriculum in
public schools.
(d) The school board to which a public school student is
subject shall have the ultimate obligation to review and
resolve objections to the curriculum in a manner that is open
and transparent to the parent, legal guardian, student, and
instructor and the public. The wishes of parents and legal
guardians for a student shall take priority wherever and
whenever possible. To remedy objections, a school board may
offer, without limitation, the following:
(1) That the instructor remove the offending
curriculum, provide additional balance or factual basis,
or correct any factual bases found to be incorrect or
biased.
(2) That an alternative curriculum be offered to the
student in replacement of the objected-to curriculum.
(3) That the objected-to curriculum be excluded from a
student's grade or be independently graded.
(4) That the objected-to curriculum, or the course as
a whole, undergo curriculum review, with the final
curriculum and learning standards to be approved by the

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school board.
(5) If objections are sufficiently pervasive or
numerous for a class that is designed to fulfill local,
State, or federal requirements, a directive may be issued
that an alternative classroom or course curriculum be
prepared that will comply with the legal requirement and
that can resolve the objections of the parent, legal
guardian, or student.
(6) That administrators or faculty members prepare an
improvement plan for curriculum quality or justify to the
school board the continued use of the objected-to
curriculum.
(e) No retaliation may occur against a student in
connection with any curriculum objections raised by the
student, parent, or legal guardian. Retaliation may include,
but is not limited to, ostracism in class, singling out a
student in class, harsher grading, transfer, isolation, or any
other tactics associated with bullying.
(f) A school board shall prepare a policy to ensure
parental involvement in public school curriculum decisions,
particularly if contentious issues are to be taught, and to
ensure that providers of curriculum and those with
responsibility for curriculum oversight are not abusing their
positions of trust at the expense of parents and students.
Section 15. Referendum. Notwithstanding any provision of

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law to the contrary, for any public school whose annual
operational expenses use, in part, non-State funds, the school
board, by majority vote of the membership of the board or upon
receipt of a petition submitted to the school board with
either (i) 250 signatures of individuals who live within the
school board's district or (ii) a number of signatures that
exceeds 10% of the total number of students who are attending
school, as measured by the 10th day attendance numbers of the
school year preceding the election period, whichever is less,
may submit to the applicable board of elections a certified
question to approve or to disapprove the use of taxpayer
funding for the curriculum at the next election where members
of the school board are up for election for an elected school
board or at the next general election if the school board is
not elected. If taxpayer funds are disapproved for such a
curriculum, it shall be improper for the school board to use
any such funds in support of the curriculum or the instructor
who seeks to present it.
Section 20. Permissible activity. Notwithstanding any
provision of law to the contrary, no distinction or
classification of students may be made on account of race or
color. However, nothing in this Section may be construed to
prohibit the required collection or reporting of demographic
data by public school districts or public institutions of
higher education. Nothing in this Section may be construed to

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prohibit the use of federal dollars for federal programs.
Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are
severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.