Bill Text: CA SB693 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended

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

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Bill Title: Pupil instruction: genocide education: the Holocaust.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-2)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-08-26 - August 26 set for first hearing canceled at the request of author. [SB693 Detail]

Download: California-2021-SB693-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  May 20, 2021

Amended  IN  Senate  April 05, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 693

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Introduced by Senator Stern
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Gabriel)
(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Archuleta, Becker, Borgeas, Glazer, Hertzberg, and Wiener)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Friedman, Lackey, and Nazarian)

February 19, 2021

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An act to add Section 51221.1 to the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 693, as amended, Stern. Pupil instruction: genocide education: the Holocaust.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate age-appropriate materials relating to, among other things, genocide and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of genocide and the Holocaust.

This bill would establish the Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education to, among other things, establish best practices for, and promote implementation of, education on genocide, including the Holocaust, and submit an annual report to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would strongly encourage school districts and charter schools with pupils in grades 4 to 12, inclusive, to integrate the best practices into instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that meets existing academic content standards and the history-social science curriculum framework for these pupils. The bill would require the department to conduct a study on the manner in which the instruction is offered to assess the impact of the instruction.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 51221.1 is added to the Education Code, to read:

51221.1.

 (a) As used in this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Council” means the Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education.

(2) “Genocide” means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group:

(A) Killing members of the group.

(B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

(C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about, in whole or in part, its physical destruction.

(D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

(E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

(3) “Holocaust” means the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately 6,000,000 Jews and 5,000,000 other individuals by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

(b) The Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education is hereby established. The council shall be responsible for coordinating efforts between the department and individuals and organizations that are experts in the field of education on genocide, including the Holocaust.

(c) The council shall consist of 17 members appointed by the Governor. Members of the council shall be individuals who have particular interest or expertise on genocide, including the Holocaust. Members of the council shall serve without compensation. However, if funding is available for this purpose from private sources, members of the council may be reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties as members of the council.

(d) (1) The council shall develop best practices to facilitate the instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that aligns with academic content standards for pupils who are enrolled in grades 4 to 12, inclusive. The best practices shall also facilitate the offering of instruction that is appropriate for pupils who are enrolled in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive.

(2) The council shall develop a process to identify available resources, and work with the department to establish new resources, that align with the best practices developed by the council, academic content standards, and the history-social science curriculum framework.

(e) The Legislature strongly encourages school districts and charter schools with pupils in grades 4 to 12, inclusive, to integrate the best practices into instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that meets existing academic content standards and the history-social science curriculum framework for these pupils. The best practices shall encourage innovation, equity, accessibility, and flexibility, and respect diversity, leading to instruction for pupils that complies with all of the following:

(1) Is age appropriate.

(2) Is sequential or thematic in its method of study.

(3) Communicates the connection between national, ethnic, racial, or religious intolerance and the subjects described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).

(4) Communicates the impact of personal responsibility, civic engagement, and societal response in the context of the subjects described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a).

(5) Includes the use of personal narratives and multimedia primary source materials, including video testimony, photographs, artwork, diary entries, letters, government documents, maps, and poems as sources of knowledge and inquiry.

(6) Uses appropriate tools and innovative learning modes to encourage inquiry, social emotional development, respect for others, critical thinking, and empathy.

(7) Provides opportunities and skills to consider the relationships between historical and contemporary experiences, including opportunities to contextualize and analyze patterns of human behavior by individuals and groups, at the local, state, national, and international level.

(8) Stimulates pupils’ reflection on the roles and responsibilities of citizens in democratic societies to combat misinformation, indifference, and discrimination by developing critical thinking skills and using tools of resistance, including protest, reform, and celebration.

(9) Provides opportunities to reflect on the importance of remembrance, including opportunities to honor the memories of genocide survivors and their cultural legacies.

(10) Is designed to do all of the following, where appropriate:

(A) Prepare pupils to confront the immorality of genocide, the Holocaust, and other crimes against humanity, such as events in Nanjing, China, and Japanese internment camps during World War II, and to reflect on the causes of related historical events.

(B) Address the breadth of the history of the Holocaust, including the Third Reich dictatorship, concentration camp system, persecution of Jews and non-Jews, Jewish and non-Jewish resistance, and post-World War II trials, and other genocides perpetrated against humanity, including, but not limited to, the Armenian Genocide, the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and other genocides committed in Africa, Asia, Latin America, South America, and Europe.

(C) Develop pupils’ respect for cultural diversity and help pupils gain insight into the importance of the protection of international human rights for all people.

(D) Promote pupils’ understanding of how the Holocaust contributed to the need for the term “genocide” and led to international legislation that recognized genocide as a crime.

(f) (1) The council shall work in consultation with the department and organizations and individuals that provide educational expertise and resources related to education on genocide, including the Holocaust, to align the best practices with academic content standards and frameworks. The best practices shall, among other things, suggest the minimum amount of instruction necessary to adequately educate pupils on genocide, including the Holocaust.

(2) The department shall distribute information on appropriate curriculum materials and guidelines to school districts and charter schools.

(g) (1) The council shall work with the department to provide resources to school districts and charter schools so they may incorporate the best practices on teaching genocide, including the Holocaust, into their existing accredited in-service training programs.

(2) The department shall make available the best practices and approved lessons, resources, and materials to support the integration of instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust.

(h) The council shall do all of the following:

(1) Identify, to the extent possible, all sources of strategies and content for providing and enhancing education on genocide, including the Holocaust, to pupils.

(2) Convene working groups comprised of individuals and organizations with significant expertise in the field of education on genocide, including the Holocaust, to advise the council. The working groups shall include certificated public school teachers.

(3) Advise the Superintendent and school districts and charter schools on strategies and content for providing and enhancing genocide and Holocaust education for teacher training and to pupils.

(4) Identify, to the extent possible, all programs and resources to train teachers to provide education on genocide, including the Holocaust, to pupils and share these programs and resources with the Superintendent, school districts, and charter schools.

(5) Coordinate with the department on the identification of resources for purposes of this section.

(6) Explore the opportunity to develop best practices for instruction of pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 3, inclusive.

(7) Promote, within school districts, charter schools, and the general population of the state, implementation of education on genocide, including the Holocaust.

(8) Work with the department to establish a small grants program to foster cooperation and innovation among teachers and schools to develop strategies to apply the best practices effectively. Individuals or schools receiving a grant shall be required to participate in an impact evaluation study, developed by the department, to assess best practices and implementation of the grant.

(9) On or before January 1, 2028, and each January 1 thereafter, submit an annual report to the Legislature on the status of education on genocide, including the Holocaust, in the state. A report to be submitted pursuant to this paragraph shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(i) The council shall develop approve professional development recommendations and materials for teaching the topic of genocide, including the Holocaust. The department shall provide a professional development program for teaching the topic of genocide, including the Holocaust, to school districts and charter schools. The Legislature strongly encourages school districts and charter schools to provide genocide professional development programs to teachers pursuant to this section. Professional development programs may be donated and funded through public-private partnerships.

(j) To the extent permitted by the California Constitution, the department may provide guidelines, in-service training, guidelines and any other materials developed in accordance with this section to a private school maintaining any of grades 4 to 12, inclusive, in the state, upon receiving a request from the private school.

(k) The department shall conduct a study on the manner in which instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, is offered pursuant to this section to assess the impact of the instruction. Participation of a school district or charter school in the study shall be voluntary. In conducting the study, a school district and charter school participating in the study that is providing instruction pursuant to this section shall provide the department with information on whether the school district and charter school offers the instruction and the manner in which the instruction is offered. On or before January 1, 2027, and each January 1 thereafter, the department shall submit a report to the Governor and appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature that includes all of the following information for the previous school year:

(1) The number of school districts and charter schools that offered instruction on genocide, including, the Holocaust.

(2) The number of school districts and charter schools that used the curriculum materials and guidelines distributed by the department pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (f).

(3) The number of school districts and charter schools that provided professional development teacher training programs pursuant to subdivision (i).

(4) A description of the manner in which school districts and charter schools provided instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, including the number of hours of instruction offered, the grade levels in which the instruction was provided, and the courses in which the instruction was provided.

(5) Recommendations for improvements to the offering of instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, including recommendations for legislation.