While many of America's classrooms remain criminally regressive when it comes to their sexual education policies, today Illinois has helped put a kibosh on some of that bullshit by stepping slightly into the 21st Century.

This afternoon the Illinois Senate approved a measure that forces sex ed classes taking place within state public schools to provide information about birth control to students. Previously schools had three options when it came to sex ed: abstinence-only classes, comprehensive classes covering both abstinence and safe sex, or no sex ed classes at all. Thanks to the new measure, which Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign into law, schools will now have to either teach the comprehensive sex ed courses or avoid sex ed altogether.

It's not a perfect law, but compared to places like North Dakota, where legislators want to block grant money to provide sex ed classes for homeless teenagers, it's certainly a start.

[Image via Flickr user Miki Yoshihito]