Chambana Sun

The Illinois State Board of Education worked with the National Sex Education Standards to provide topics such as gender identity and expression, consent and healthy relationships and interpersonal violence for K-12 education.

“We get distracted by all the (masks) mandates and this is exactly why students in Illinois do so poorly on the different tests,” Rep. Dan Caulkins said against the educational effort.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 2,608 Illinoisan high schoolers had sex in 2019.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 818 into law in August 2021, requiring all schools K-12 that teach sexual education to align their curriculum with certain standards, according to a press release. 

“Modernizing our sex education standards will help keep our children safe and ensure important lessons like consent and internet safety are taught in classrooms,” Pritzker said.

Planned Parenthood argued sex education taught at an early age gives students life skills for good sexual health, and its teaching of culture and inclusion helps students develop social and emotional skills to be “empathetic” adults.

The new sex education curriculum will be based on the National Sex Education Standards (NSES), which include teaching children in kindergarten through 2nd grade to define gender and gender identity, as well as gender-role stereotypes, and teaching the students the medically accurate names for body parts, including genitals, according to a report from Breakthrough Ideas. Children in grades 3 through 5 will be taught about masturbation; hormonal development and the role of hormone blockers; the differences between cisgender, transgender, and gender nonbinary; and the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.

Children in grades 6 through 8 will be taught to define oral sex, anal sex, and vaginal sex, and instructed to identify at least 4 methods of contraception that are available without a prescription, such as condoms and emergency contraception. High school students will be taught about reproductive justice, as well as how to differentiate between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and gender expression.

As Planned Parenthood said, providing scientifically accurate age-appropriate sex education ensures youths know healthy relationships and what sexual assault looks like.

According to test scores from the most recent Illinois Assessment of Readiness, less than 20% of Chicago third graders can read or do math at grade level proficiency, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

With the lack of warning youths about the risks associated with unprotected sex, unwanted pregnancies could impact, per se, a high school student’s ability to focus on studying. The National Conference of State Legislature wrote teen pregnancy and parenting contribute to a student dropping out, adding that 40% of youths of color feel this hardest.

Statewide, only 38% of students read at grade level, according to Wirepoints.