Amended in Senate June 5, 2014

Amended in Assembly January 23, 2014

Amended in Assembly January 16, 2014

Amended in Assembly January 8, 2014

Amended in Assembly January 6, 2014

Amended in Assembly March 19, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 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 begin delete encourage end delete begin insert require end insert the department to incorporate materials related to the Armenian Genocide into those publications, and would require the commission to begin delete consider end delete begin insert include end insert the Armenian Genocide begin delete for inclusion end delete in the begin insert recommended end insert 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)  begin delete (1) end delete begin delete   end delete 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, begin insert the
Armenian Genocide, end insert and the Holocaust.

begin delete

(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.

end delete

(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.

begin delete

(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.

end delete begin insert

(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.

end insert begin insert

(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.

end insert begin delete

(f)

end delete

begin insert ( end insert begin insert g) end insert  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.