BILL NUMBER: AB 2864 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chau
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
An act to amend Section 51226.3 of the Education Code, relating to
pupil instruction.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2864, as amended, Chau. Pupil instruction: Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882: Geary Act of 1892. Chinese
Americans' contributions to establishment of
transcontinental railroad.
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 for teacher use,
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 oral 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 all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist them in teaching about the Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882, the Geary Act of 1892, and other specified laws
relating to the discrimination against, and mistreatment of, Chinese
and other minority groups. 1882 and the contributions
of Chinese Americans to the establishment of the transcontinental
railroad. The bill would require those laws
topics be considered in the next cycle in which
for inclusion, as prov ided,
when the s tate board revises and adopts the
history-social science curriculum framework and its
accompanying instructional materials are adopted. on
or after January 1, 2017.
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) (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, 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, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
(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 them in teaching about civil rights, human
rights violations, genocide, slavery, the Armenian Genocide, and the
Holocaust.
(d) The Legislature encourages all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist them in teaching about the Great Irish Famine
of 1845-50.
(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) (1) The Legislature encourages all state and local
professional development activities to provide teachers with content
background and resources to assist them in teaching about the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882 as the first major law to single out
and forbid a specific ethnic group, the Chinese, from immigrating to,
and becoming naturalized citizens of, the United States, and the
Geary Act of 1892, which extended the prohibitions of the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882 and imposed new and onerous requirements on
Chinese immigrants. and the contributions of Chinese
Americans to the establishment of the transcontinental railroad.
(2) The Legislature encourages all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist them in teaching about additional laws that
were enacted to perpetuate the discrimination against, and unequal
treatment of, Chinese and other minority groups, including numerous
antimiscegenation laws that prohibited marriage between white women
and men of minority background or ancestry; the Alien Land Law of
1913, which prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from
owning land or property; the Cable Act of 1922, which terminated the
United States citizenship of any woman who married an alien
ineligible for United States citizenship; and the Immigration Act of
1924, which limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted
from any country and prohibited the immigration of all Asians.
(3) The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Geary Act of 1892, and
the other laws identified in paragraph (2) shall be considered in the
next cycle in which the history-social science curriculum framework
and its accompanying instructional materials are adopted.
(2) When the state board revises and adopts the curriculum
framework for history-social science on or after January 1, 2017, the
state board shall consider providing for the inclusion, in that
curriculum framework, evaluation criteria, and accompanying
instructional materials, of instruction on the Chinese Exclusion Act
of 1882 and the contributions of Chinese Americans to the
establishment of the transcontinental railroad.
(g) When the history-social science curriculum framework is
revised as required by law, the Instructional Quality Commission
shall consider including the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan
genocides in the recommended history-social science curriculum
framework.
(h) 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.
(i) For purposes of this article, "Armenian Genocide" means the
torture, starvation, and murder of 1,500,000 Armenians, which
included death marches into the Syrian desert, by the rulers of the
Ottoman Turkish Empire and the exile of more than 500,000 innocent
people during the period from 1915 to 1923, inclusive.
(j) When the state board revises and adopts the curriculum
framework for history-social science on or after January 1, 2016, the
state board shall consider providing for the inclusion, in that
curriculum framework, evaluation criteria, and accompanying
instructional materials, of instruction on the unconstitutional
deportation to Mexico during the Great Depression of citizens and
lawful permanent residents of the United States.
(k) As used in subdivisions (b) and (c), "human rights" and "human
rights violations" include the unconstitutional deportation to
Mexico during the Great Depression of citizens and lawful permanent
residents of the United States.