Bill Text: IL HB2508 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Engrossed


Bill Title: Amends the School Code. Provides that the required unit of instruction on genocide shall include the Pontian Greek Genocide. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-04-03 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB2508 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-HB2508-Engrossed.html



HB2508 Engrossed LRB096 09092 NHT 19233 b
1 AN ACT concerning education.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The School Code is amended by changing Section
5 27-20.3 as follows:
6 (105 ILCS 5/27-20.3) (from Ch. 122, par. 27-20.3)
7 Sec. 27-20.3. Holocaust and Genocide Study. Every public
8 elementary school and high school shall include in its
9 curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of the
10 Nazi atrocities of 1933 to 1945. This period in world history
11 is known as the Holocaust, during which 6,000,000 Jews and
12 millions of non-Jews were exterminated. One of the universal
13 lessons of the Holocaust is that national, ethnic, racial, or
14 religious hatred can overtake any nation or society, leading to
15 calamitous consequences. To reinforce that lesson, such
16 curriculum shall include an additional unit of instruction
17 studying other acts of genocide across the globe. This unit
18 shall include, but not be limited to, the Armenian Genocide,
19 the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, the Pontian Greek Genocide, and
20 more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan.
21 The studying of this material is a reaffirmation of the
22 commitment of free peoples from all nations to never again
23 permit the occurrence of another Holocaust and a recognition

HB2508 Engrossed - 2 - LRB096 09092 NHT 19233 b
1 that crimes of genocide continue to be perpetrated across the
2 globe as they have been in the past and to deter indifference
3 to crimes against humanity and human suffering wherever they
4 may occur.
5 The State Superintendent of Education may prepare and make
6 available to all school boards instructional materials which
7 may be used as guidelines for development of a unit of
8 instruction under this Section; provided, however, that each
9 school board shall itself determine the minimum amount of
10 instruction time which shall qualify as a unit of instruction
11 satisfying the requirements of this Section.
12 (Source: P.A. 94-478, eff. 8-5-05.)
13 Section 90. The State Mandates Act is amended by adding
14 Section 8.33 as follows:
15 (30 ILCS 805/8.33 new)
16 Sec. 8.33. Exempt mandate. Notwithstanding Sections 6 and 8
17 of this Act, no reimbursement by the State is required for the
18 implementation of any mandate created by this amendatory Act of
19 the 96th General Assembly.
20 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
21
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