Illinois Climate Education Hub, a new collection of lessons and resources on climate change especially for educators in the Prairie State, launched on September 5, 2025, heralded by a story from CBS News Chicago (September 2, 2025).
When Illinois's climate change education bill, House Bill 4895, was enacted in 2024, it provided that "[t]he State Board of Education shall, subject to appropriation, prepare and make available multi-disciplinary instructional resources and professional learning opportunities for educators that may be used to meet the requirements of this subsection," as NCSE previously reported. But no such appropriation was forthcoming.
Illinois Climate Education Hub is intended to enable Illinois educators to comply with the requirements of the new law, which requires every public school in the state to provide instruction on climate change, including impacts and solutions, beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. The hub's resources are aligned to Illinois's state science standards and refer specifically to impacts and solutions in the state.
The hub was developed by Climate Education for Illinois, which helped to secure passage of the new law, and Subject to Climate, which developed similar resource hubs for Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Helen von den Steinen of Climate Education for Illinois explained, "We really need to make teachers aware, so that they know this is a resource out there to help their teaching."
NCSE Teacher Ambassador Jeff Grant, a high school teacher at Downers Grove North High School and a dedicated teacher of climate change, told CBS News Chicago, "Teachers can feel pretty confident about what they're going on there and getting," adding, "The kids are conscientious of it, you know, and we want to provide them with enough data that they can make their own understandings of stuff as they go through life."
NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch predicted, "The Illinois Climate Education Hub will help to ensure that today's students are equipped with the knowledge and knowhow they will need to cope with the challenges of tomorrow's warming world."
