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AB-659 Pupil instruction: Armenian Genocide.(2013-2014)

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Amended  IN  Senate  June 05, 2014
Amended  IN  Assembly  January 23, 2014
Amended  IN  Assembly  January 16, 2014
Amended  IN  Assembly  January 08, 2014
Amended  IN  Assembly  January 06, 2014
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 19, 2013

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2013–2014 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 659

Introduced by Assembly Member Nazarian
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Achadjian)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Fox, Gatto, 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 encourage require the department to incorporate materials related to the Armenian Genocide into those publications, and would require the commission to consider include the Armenian Genocide for inclusion in the recommended 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   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 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 an 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.

(e) The Great Irish Famine of 1845–50 shall be considered in the next cycle in which the history-social science curriculum framework and its accompanying instructional materials are adopted.
(f) When the history-social science curriculum framework is revised as required by law, the Instructional Quality Commission shall include the Armenian Genocide in the recommended history-social science curriculum framework.

(f)

(g) 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.