Illinois § 27-305

§ 27-305.

Consumer education. (a) Pupils in the public schools in grades 9 through 12 shall be taught and be required to study courses which include instruction in the area of consumer education, including but not necessarily limited to (i) understanding the basic concepts of financial literacy, including consumer debt and installment purchasing (including credit scoring, managing credit debt, and completing a loan application), budgeting, savings and investing, banking (including balancing a checkbook, opening a deposit account, and the use of interest rates), understanding simple contracts, State and federal income taxes, personal insurance policies, the comparison of prices, higher education student loans, identity-theft security, and homeownership (including the basic process of obtaining a mortgage and the concepts of fixed and adjustable rate mortgages, subprime loans, and predatory lending), and (ii) understanding the roles of consumers interacting with agriculture, business, labor unions and government in formulating and achieving the goals of the mixed free enterprise system. The State Board of Education shall devise or approve the consumer education curriculum for grades 9 through 12 and specify the minimum amount of instruction to be devoted thereto. (b) (Blank). (c) (Blank). (d) A school board may establish a special fund in which to receive public funds and private contributions for the promotion of financial literacy. Money in the fund shall be used for the following: (1) Defraying the costs of financial literacy training for teachers. (2) Rewarding a school or teacher who wins or achieves results at a certain level of success in a financial literacy competition. (3) Rewarding a student who wins or achieves results at a certain level of success in a financial literacy competition. (4) Funding activities, including books, games, field trips, computers, and other activities, related to financial literacy education. (e) The State Board of Education, upon the next comprehensive review of the Illinois Learning Standards, is urged to include the basic principles of personal insurance policies and understanding simple contracts. (Source: P.A. 103-616, eff. 7-1-24; 104-391, eff. 8-15-25.)