BILL NUMBER: AB 659 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 8, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nazarian
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 materials
related to the Armenian Genocide into those publications, and would
require the commission to consider the Armenian Genocide
to be considered in the next cycle in which
for inclusion in the history/social
history-social science curriculum framework and its
accompanying instructional materials are adopted when
the history-social science framework is revised as
required by law . The bill would also specify that the
Legislature encourages the incorporation of an oral history
component specifically related to genocide, including, but not
limited to, survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness
oral testimony into the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and
genocide, including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur,
and Rwandan , Cambodian, and Armenian genocides,
and the Jewish Holocaust, and genocides. The bill
would require define oral
testimony incorporated into an oral history component to
consist only of 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) 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.
(b) (1) The Legislature encourages the
incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral
testimony into the teaching of human rights, genocide,
the Holocaust, and the Armenian Genocide
genocide, including, but not limited to, the Armenian,
Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides .
(c) (1) The Legislature encourages the incorporation of an oral
history component specifically related to genocide, including, but
not limited to, the Darfur, Rwandan, Cambodian, and Armenian
genocides, and the Jewish Holocaust.
(2) As used in this subdivision, testimony incorporated
into an oral history component shall consist only of
"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.
(d)
( 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.
(e)
( 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.
(f) The Great Irish Famine of 1845-50 and the Armenian Genocide
shall be considered in the next cycle in which the history/social
science curriculum framework and its accompanying instructional
materials are adopted.
(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.
(g)
( 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.