What Illinois New Education Standards Look Like For Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5

Illinois with its new education standards for grades K-2 – 5 is making big strides.

With the world rapidly changing, and with the traditional sexual orientation evolving from the norm, the Government of Illinois is fully embracing all gender identities and stereotypes.

Sometime in February 2021, the 102 Illinois General Assembly introduced a bill for the purpose of reforming sex education in Illinois schools.

After successful votes in both the House and Senate chambers, Governor Jay Robert Pritzker signed the bill into law on August 20, 2021.

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The Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act (Senate Bill 0818) called for reformed curricula that provide personal health and safety education from kindergarten through fifth Grade and it even went further to provide for comprehensive sexual health education from sixth through 12th grade.

The bill requires that these curricula be set in tandem with the National Sex Education Standards.

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), one of the key actors in the blossoming of the national standards, posited that these standards provide comprehensive sex education that is “science-based, medically accurate and complete, and age, developmentally and culturally appropriate.”

Following this, Illinois education standards now provide that grades K-2 should learn about gender, gender identity, and gender stereotypes. While grades 3-5 learn about masturbation, puberty blockers, and trans children & Literal grooming.

In Summary, this is what the new Illinois education standard looks like for grades K-2 and grades 3-5.

The National Sex Education Standards & Illinois Comprehensive Sex Education Bill SB818, mandates that Grades K-2 should be able to:
1. Identify different kinds of families (single parents, intergenerational, cohabiting, adoption, foster, same gender, interracial).
2. Define gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes.
3. List medically accurate names for body parts, including the genitals.

While Grades 3-5 should be able to:
1. Explain common human sexual development, and the role is hormones (romantic, sexual feelings, masturbation, mood swings).
2. Describe the role hormones play in the physical, social, cognitive and emotional changes during adolescence and the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender).
3. Outline and explain the differences between gender, transgender, gender non binary, gender and gender identity, explain the gender aggression and gender identity exist along a spectrum).
4. Difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.

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The Senate Bill 0818 noticeably departs from the previous provision of sex education, as it now mandates sex education, reforms sex education such that it is in alignment with national standards, it requires sex education to be provided from Kindergarten onwards, it is inclusive of many gender and sexual identities.

The reforms are also abstinence-based, rather than abstinence-stressed, meaning that there is less emphasis on abstinence. In addition, the reformed standards specify topics that go beyond the traditional themes of sexual intercourse, STIs, contraception, and pregnancy.

One thing for sure is that, with this new changes, Illinois may face difficulty convincing wary parents to keep their kids in their schools’ sex education classes, as parents do have the choice to opt their children out.