Bill Text: CA AB659 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Pupil instruction: Armenian Genocide.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2014-06-11 - Re-referred to Com. on ED. [AB659 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB659-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 659	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 16, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 8, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 6, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 19, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Nazarian
    (   Principal coauthor:   Assembly Member
  Achadjian   ) 
    (   Coauthors:   Assembly Members 
 Fox   and Wilk   ) 
    (  Coauthor:   Senator   Wyland
  ) 

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2013

   An act to amend Section 51226.3 of the Education Code, relating to
pupil instruction.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 659, as amended, Nazarian. Pupil instruction: Armenian
Genocide.
   Existing law requires the State Department of Education to
incorporate materials relating to civil rights, human rights
violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust into publications
that provide examples of curriculum resources, consistent with the
subject frameworks on history and social science and other
requirements. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the
incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness testimony
into the teaching of human rights, genocide, and the Holocaust.
Existing law establishes the Instructional Quality Commission and
requires the commission to, among other things, recommend curriculum
frameworks to the State Board of Education.
   This bill would  also require the incorporation of
  encourage the department to incorporate 
materials related to the Armenian Genocide into those publications,
and would require the commission to consider the Armenian Genocide
for inclusion in the history-social science curriculum framework when
the history-social science framework is revised as required by law.
The bill would also specify that the Legislature encourages the
incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral
testimony into the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and
genocide, including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan
genocides. The bill would define oral testimony to mean firsthand
accounts of significant historical events presented in a specified
format.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 51226.3 of the Education Code is amended to
read:
   51226.3.  (a)  (1)    The department shall
incorporate into publications that provide examples of curriculum
resources for teacher use those materials developed by publishers of
nonfiction, trade books, and primary sources, or other public or
private organizations, that are age-appropriate and consistent with
the subject frameworks on history and social science that deal with
civil rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery, 
the Holocaust, and the Armenian Genocide.   and the
Holocaust.  
   (2) The Legislature encourages the department to incorporate into
publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for
teacher use those materials developed by publishers of nonfiction,
trade books, and primary sources, or other public or private
organizations, that are age-appropriate and consistent with the
subject frameworks on history and social science that deal with the
Armenian Genocide. 
   (b) (1) The Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor,
rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of
human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, including, but not limited
to, the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
   (2) As used in this subdivision, "oral testimony" means the
firsthand accounts of significant historical events presented in a
format that includes, but is not limited to, in-person testimony,
video, or a multimedia option, such as a DVD or online video.
   (c) The Legislature encourages all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist in teaching about civil rights, human rights
violations, genocide, slavery, the Holocaust, and the Armenian
Genocide.
   (d) The Legislature encourages all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist in teaching about the Great Irish Famine of
1845-50.
   (e) When the history-social science curriculum framework is
revised as required by law, the Instructional Quality Commission
shall consider including the Great Irish Famine of 1845-50 and the
Armenian Genocide in the history-social science curriculum framework.

   (f) The Model Curriculum for Human Rights and Genocide adopted by
the state board, pursuant to Section 51226, shall be made available
to schools in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, as soon as funding is
available for this purpose. In addition, the department shall make
the curriculum available on its Internet Web site.