Illinois is 50th on School Integrity – Parents Get a Vote on April 6

By Shannon Adcock
President, Awake Illinois & Opinion Contributor

Illinois ranks next to last on whether its public schools put students and parents first. That is the finding of Defending Education’s 2026 Rankings on Integrity in State Education (RISE), which scored all 50 states and the District of Columbia on gender and sexuality policy, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” content, parental rights, teacher and union rules, and foreign influence. Tennessee finished first. Illinois finished 50th, ahead only of D.C. The ranking measures policy choices, not test scores. On those choices, Illinois has chosen poorly, and the academic results show it. That holds grave implications for the 1.85 million students in Illinois public schools.

On gender and sexuality policy, Illinois scored 6 percent. State law requires LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. The state does not bar males from female sports teams. Gender identity is written into discrimination and anti-bullying rules. On parental rights, the state scored 13 percent: no requirement that schools tell parents when a child is socially transitioned, and weak disclosure rules for sex education that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. On teacher policy, Illinois scored zero, tied for last with California. It restricts E-Verify, has no right-to-work law, permits strikes, and permits collective bargaining. It has no statewide limit on Chinese government influence in schools. On DEI content it scored 25 percent, near the bottom: restorative-justice discipline, race-disaggregated reporting, teacher-diversity goals, race-focused retention spending, and only an introduced, not enacted, anti-DEI bill.

Illinois spends roughly $25,000 to $26,100 per pupil, among the highest totals in the country and several thousand dollars above the national average, funded heavily by some of the nation’s highest property taxes. The 2025-26 education budget was a record. Enrollment has fallen about 10 percent over the past decade.

The money has not bought proficiency. On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, about 30 percent of Illinois fourth-graders were proficient in reading and 38 percent in math; among eighth-graders the figures were roughly 33 percent in reading and 32 percent in math. State assessments for 2024-25, even after the state board lowered proficiency benchmarks, still showed only about half of students meeting reading standards and 39 percent meeting math standards. Gaps are larger for Black and Hispanic students. Chronic absenteeism remains elevated.

The same pattern shows up in complaints parents are already pressing. Defending Education’s records requests in Oswego District 308 turned up trainings that asked staff and students to read “How Privileged Am I” and rank their privilege, and a 2025 middle-school assembly that divided students by race without notifying parents.

Awake Illinois has filed federal civil rights complaints against the Illinois State Board of Education and suburban districts including Naperville 203, Valley View 365U, Deerfield 109, District 128, and Algonquin District 300. The complaints allege Title IX violations that put males in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports, and policies that socially transition students without parental consent. In May 2026 the group filed five more complaints with the Justice Department, running parallel to investigations of 36 Illinois districts.

Awake Illinois is also supporting three federal lawsuits. In F.F. v. Valley View 365U, families are challenging access to girls’ private spaces based on gender identity; a preliminary injunction was denied, and the case is on appeal to the Seventh Circuit. In Deerfield District 109, a mother sued after her daughter was required to change in front of a male student at Shepard Middle School. In Algonquin District 300, a May 2026 suit challenges secret social transitions. Awake Illinois has covered court fees for the plaintiffs. These cases track the RISE findings: Illinois scored near the bottom on gender policy and parental disclosure.

Parents and staff with documents should not wait for the next election. Awake Illinois has expanded its portal from the original 36 districts to every district in the state. Lesson plans, emails, slides, gender-support plans, and facility policies can be submitted at www.awakeIL.com/DOJ. Vetted materials go to the Civil Rights Division.

School boards are the most direct lever parents have. Illinois holds its consolidated election, including school-board races, on April 6, 2027. Chicago school-board elections are in November 2026. Petition circulation for the April seats has already begun. Boards hire superintendents, adopt curriculum, set facility policy, and decide how transparent schools will be. Voters who want academics over ideology, biological sex in sports and locker rooms, and notice before a school acts on a child’s gender identity should recruit candidates and show up. The RISE ranking is the diagnosis. April 6 is a chance to start the treatment.