Students entering high school in 2028 will not necessarily have to complete two years of foreign language as a condition of graduating under a bill headed to Governor JB Pritzker’s desk.
Instead, they’ll have the option of taking a foreign language or an approved career and technical education course.
Supporters said they favored the concept of emphasizing foreign languages as part of the high school curriculum.
But they conceded there simply aren’t enough foreign language teachers available in Illinois to make the classes available to every student in every high school.
