Florida Senate - 2021 SB 772
By Senator Thurston
33-00950-21 2021772__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to required instruction on the history
3 of the Holocaust and of African Americans; amending s.
4 1003.42, F.S.; requiring the Department of Education
5 to prepare and offer standards and curricula related
6 to the history of African Americans; authorizing the
7 department to seek input from certain entities for
8 specified purposes; authorizing the department to seek
9 input from or contract with specified entities to
10 develop specified training and resources; creating s.
11 1003.4551, F.S.; requiring the Department of Education
12 to annually verify that school districts, charter
13 schools, and specified private schools implement
14 certain instruction relating to the history of the
15 Holocaust and the history of African Americans;
16 providing requirements for school districts, charter
17 schools, and specified private schools relating to
18 such instruction; providing requirements for district
19 school boards, charter school governing boards, and
20 private school directors or similar administrators;
21 requiring district school superintendents, charter
22 school principals, and private school directors or
23 similar administrators to annually provide specified
24 evidence to the department by a certain date;
25 providing penalties if he or she fails to provide such
26 evidence; authorizing the State Board of Education to
27 adopt rules; amending s. 1008.22, F.S.; requiring
28 certain statewide, standardized assessments to include
29 curricula content from the history of the Holocaust
30 and the history of African Americans when appropriate;
31 providing an effective date.
32
33 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
34
35 Section 1. Paragraph (h) of subsection (2) of section
36 1003.42, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
37 1003.42 Required instruction.—
38 (2) Members of the instructional staff of the public
39 schools, subject to the rules of the State Board of Education
40 and the district school board, shall teach efficiently and
41 faithfully, using the books and materials required that meet the
42 highest standards for professionalism and historical accuracy,
43 following the prescribed courses of study, and employing
44 approved methods of instruction, the following:
45 (h) The history of African Americans, including the history
46 of African peoples before the political conflicts that led to
47 the development of slavery, the passage to America, the
48 enslavement experience, abolition, and the contributions of
49 African Americans to society. Instructional materials shall
50 include the contributions of African Americans to American
51 society. The department shall prepare and offer standards and
52 curricula for the instruction required by this paragraph and may
53 seek input from the Commissioner of Education’s African American
54 History Task Force or from state or nationally recognized
55 African American history educational organizations. The
56 department may seek input from the Commissioner of Education’s
57 African American History Task Force or contract with a
58 recognized museum of African American history to develop
59 training for instructional personnel and grade-appropriate
60 classroom resources to support the developed curricula.
61
62 The State Board of Education is encouraged to adopt standards
63 and pursue assessment of the requirements of this subsection. A
64 character development program that incorporates the values of
65 the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor and that is
66 offered as part of a social studies, English Language Arts, or
67 other schoolwide character building and veteran awareness
68 initiative meets the requirements of paragraphs (s) and (t).
69 Section 2. Section 1003.4551, Florida Statutes, is created
70 to read:
71 1003.4551 School district, charter school, and private
72 school implementation of the history of the Holocaust and the
73 history of African Americans.—
74 (1) Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, the department
75 shall annually verify that each school district, charter school,
76 and private school implements the instruction required under s.
77 1003.42(2)(g) and (h), relating to the history of the Holocaust
78 and the history of African Americans, efficiently and faithfully
79 throughout the school district’s, charter school’s, or private
80 school’s entire curriculum, as appropriate. For purposes of this
81 section, the term “private school” means a private school that
82 accepts scholarship students who participate in a scholarship
83 program under chapter 1002.
84 (2) Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, each school
85 district, charter school, and private school must:
86 (a) Develop, and each school board, charter school
87 governing board, and private school director or similar
88 administrator must adopt, a plan for the implementation of the
89 required instruction on the history of the Holocaust and the
90 history of African Americans and publicize such plan in the
91 school district’s, charter school’s, or private school’s
92 curriculum guides and on the school district’s, charter
93 school’s, or private school’s website.
94 (b) Develop and implement an ongoing professional
95 development plan for training instructional staff in strategies
96 for teaching the history of the Holocaust and the history of
97 African Americans. The school district, charter school, or
98 private school must allocate adequate resources to structured
99 professional development programs and for enhancing the
100 instruction of the history of the Holocaust and the history of
101 African Americans in an infused format.
102 (c) Integrate curricula for the history of the Holocaust
103 and the history of African Americans that meet the requirements
104 of s. 1003.42(2)(g) and (h) as part of the school district’s,
105 charter school’s, or private school’s curriculum. Such curricula
106 must be distributed to curriculum specialists, teachers, media
107 specialists, and other instructional staff. The school district,
108 charter school, or private school must ensure that adequate
109 instructional resources, including, but not limited to, books,
110 compact discs, digital media, and lesson plans, are available to
111 support such instruction.
112 (d) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
113 African Americans content in lesson plans for the entire school
114 year, as appropriate.
115 (e) Approve methods for teaching and assessing the history
116 of the Holocaust and the history of African Americans curricula.
117 (f) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
118 African Americans content in any preparations for statewide
119 assessments, when appropriate.
120 (g) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
121 African Americans content in all appropriate subject areas.
122 (h) Partner with a state university for the development and
123 implementation of professional development, curricula, and
124 instructional support, including jointly seeking external
125 funding and preparing teachers and other instructional staff to
126 teach the history of the Holocaust and the history of African
127 Americans.
128 (i) Develop strategies to involve parents in the
129 implementation of the curricula for the history of the Holocaust
130 and the history of African Americans, including through
131 awareness information sessions.
132 (j) Partner with community members in the development and
133 ongoing implementation of the history of the Holocaust and the
134 history of African Americans curricula.
135 (3) By August 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, each
136 district school superintendent, charter school principal, and
137 private school director or similar administrator shall provide
138 to the department, in a format prescribed by the department,
139 evidence of school district, charter school, and private school
140 compliance with subsection (2). If a district school
141 superintendent, charter school principal, or private school
142 director or similar administrator fails to provide such
143 evidence, he or she is subject to the following penalties:
144 (a) For a district school superintendent, his or her salary
145 must be withheld until he or she provides such evidence.
146 (b) For a charter school principal, his or her charter
147 school is deemed in violation of its charter with the school
148 district until he or she provides such evidence.
149 (c) For a private school director or similar administrator,
150 his or her private school may not receive any state funds from a
151 scholarship program under chapter 1002 until he or she provides
152 such evidence.
153 (4) The State Board of Education may adopt rules to
154 administer this section.
155 Section 3. Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section
156 1008.22, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
157 1008.22 Student assessment program for public schools.—
158 (3) STATEWIDE, STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT PROGRAM.—The
159 Commissioner of Education shall design and implement a
160 statewide, standardized assessment program aligned to the core
161 curricular content established in the Next Generation Sunshine
162 State Standards. The commissioner also must develop or select
163 and implement a common battery of assessment tools that will be
164 used in all juvenile justice education programs in the state.
165 These tools must accurately measure the core curricular content
166 established in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.
167 Participation in the assessment program is mandatory for all
168 school districts and all students attending public schools,
169 including adult students seeking a standard high school diploma
170 under s. 1003.4282 and students in Department of Juvenile
171 Justice education programs, except as otherwise provided by law.
172 If a student does not participate in the assessment program, the
173 school district must notify the student’s parent and provide the
174 parent with information regarding the implications of such
175 nonparticipation. The statewide, standardized assessment program
176 shall be designed and implemented as follows:
177 (a) Statewide, standardized comprehensive assessments.—The
178 statewide, standardized Reading assessment shall be administered
179 annually in grades 3 through 10. The statewide, standardized
180 Writing assessment shall be administered annually at least once
181 at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. When the
182 Reading and Writing assessments are replaced by English Language
183 Arts (ELA) assessments, ELA assessments shall be administered to
184 students in grades 3 through 10. Retake opportunities for the
185 grade 10 Reading assessment or, upon implementation, the grade
186 10 ELA assessment must be provided. Students taking the ELA
187 assessments shall not take the statewide, standardized
188 assessments in Reading or Writing. Reading passages and writing
189 prompts for ELA assessments shall incorporate grade-level core
190 curricula content from social studies and, when appropriate,
191 curricula content from the history of the Holocaust and the
192 history of African Americans. The statewide, standardized
193 Mathematics assessments shall be administered annually in grades
194 3 through 8. Students taking a revised Mathematics assessment
195 shall not take the discontinued assessment. The statewide,
196 standardized Science assessment shall be administered annually
197 at least once at the elementary and middle grades levels. In
198 order to earn a standard high school diploma, a student who has
199 not earned a passing score on the grade 10 Reading assessment
200 or, upon implementation, the grade 10 ELA assessment must earn a
201 passing score on the assessment retake or earn a concordant
202 score as authorized under subsection (9).
203 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.