In the midst of a right-wing attack on creating a more inclusive education in the U.S., Illinois just became the first state to require Asian American history to be taught in public schools.

After decades of organizing by parents, activists and unions, Chicago is on the verge of having a fully elected school board for the first time in its history.

Major changes to Illinois’ criminal justice system that passed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder will begin to take effect Thursday, including a requirement that officers track and report to the state incidents in which they use a gun on someone. Here’s what else is changing.

Community organizations and state lawmakers are working to make menstrual products more accessible to Illinoisans who need them. We take a look at the issue in our Firsthand: Living in Poverty series.

Illinois residents scrambling to renew their driver’s licenses and identification cards got a five-month reprieve Monday as lines swelled at secretary of state offices across the state.

A bill awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature would repeal the state’s so-called HIV criminal transmission statute, which makes it illegal for people living with HIV to have unprotected sex without disclosing their status to sexual partners.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the law Wednesday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, where a rare copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by the country’s 16th president is currently on display.

The Illinois House on Wednesday approved legislation that will turn the current seven-member appointed board — the lone appointed school board in the state — into a 21-member body with elections beginning in 2024. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has strongly opposed the bill, calling it “very ill-constructed.”

Lawmakers couldn’t clinch a deal on a comprehensive energy package before their regular session ended in May, but were called back to Springfield on Tuesday to try again. Instead, the Senate adjourned once again without taking action.

Illinois legislators left Springfield a couple of weeks ago, but they’re already heading back. Here are some of the items on the docket.

As state lawmakers prepare to return to Springfield for a pivotal vote on whether Chicago Public Schools should be run by an elected school board, Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked members of the Illinois House to delay a vote approved by the Illinois Senate.

Illinois Democrats used inadequate data and an opaque process to draw new legislative districts, a Latino civil rights organization argued in the latest lawsuit seeking to block the maps from being used for statehouse elections over the next decade.

The state’s top Republicans asked a federal judge Wednesday to appoint an eight-member commission made up of four Democrats and four Republicans to craft the maps with census data.

The boundaries of political power in Illinois for the next decade are close to fixed. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law new maps of districts for the state legislature, Illinois Supreme Court and Cook County Board of Review.

A deal on Gov. Pritzker’s big push to make Illinois a green-powered state has reportedly been close for weeks. But the bill stalled in the Illinois Senate earlier this week. 

One-on-one with Gov. J.B. Pritzker about the budget, redistricting, the state reopening and more.