Pupil instruction: Holocaust and genocide education: notice, survey, and grant program.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill does not provide detailed information on how grants will be allocated or what professional development programs will look like.

Holocaust and Genocide Education Program

This law requires the California Department of Education to create a notice about teaching Holocaust and genocide for grades 7-12, allows them to survey schools on their current instruction, and establishes a grant program funded by the state to support Holocaust and genocide education in schools.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the State Department of Education to issue a notice regarding Holocaust and genocide instruction for grades 7-12.
• Authorizes the department to conduct surveys on the status of Holocaust and genocide instruction at schools serving pupils from grades 7 to 12.
• Establishes the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury, which provides grants to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools for teaching about these topics.

Who It Names or Affects

• Schools serving students from grades 7 to 12 in California
• The Department of Education

Terms To Know

Grant Program

A program that gives money to schools for specific educational purposes.

Limits and Unknowns

• It is unclear how much funding will be available in the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program Fund.
• The exact requirements for schools to receive grants are not specified.

Official Summary Text

SB 472, Stern.
Pupil instruction: Holocaust and genocide education: notice, survey, and grant program.
Existing law requires the State Department of Education to incorporate age-appropriate materials relating to, among other things, genocide and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use, consistent with the subject frameworks on history and social science. Under existing law, the Legislature encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into the teaching of genocide and the Holocaust. Existing law, upon appropriation by the Legislature, establishes the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education to establish a statewide teacher professional development program on genocide, including the Holocaust, for school district, county office of education, and charter school teachers, and provides that the collaborative’s mission is to ensure that genocide, including Holocaust,
education is taught consistent with, among other things, content standards, curriculum frameworks, and instructional materials adopted by the State Board of Education, in ways that are interdisciplinary and age-appropriate to pupils of different grade levels.
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program to provide direct allocations to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools for the purposes of providing Holocaust and genocide education and professional development on Holocaust and genocide education, as provided. The bill would establish the Holocaust and Genocide Education Grant Program Fund in the State Treasury, and would require moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Superintendent for purposes of the grant program. The bill would require the department to issue a notice to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools serving pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, regarding genocide and Holocaust instruction, and would authorize the department to issue a survey to these local educational agencies on the status of Holocaust and genocide instruction at their schools, as provided.

Current Bill Text

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