Florida Senate - 2022 SB 1398
By Senator Berman
31-01471-22 20221398__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to required instruction in the history
3 of the Holocaust and the history of African Americans;
4 amending s. 1003.42, F.S.; requiring the Department of
5 Education to prepare and offer standards and
6 curriculum related to the history of African
7 Americans; authorizing the department to seek input
8 from certain entities for specified purposes;
9 authorizing the department to seek input from or
10 contract with specified entities to develop specified
11 training and resources; creating s. 1003.4551, F.S.;
12 requiring the department to annually verify that
13 school districts, charter schools, and specified
14 private schools implement certain instruction relating
15 to the history of the Holocaust and the history of
16 African Americans and providing requirements therefor;
17 requiring district school superintendents, charter
18 school principals, and private school directors or
19 similar administrators to annually provide specified
20 evidence to the department by a certain date;
21 providing penalties for failure to provide such
22 evidence; authorizing the State Board of Education to
23 adopt rules; amending s. 1008.22, F.S.; requiring
24 certain statewide, standardized assessments to include
25 curricula content from the history of the Holocaust
26 and the history of African Americans; providing an
27 effective date.
28
29 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
30
31 Section 1. Paragraph (h) of subsection (2) of section
32 1003.42, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
33 1003.42 Required instruction.—
34 (2) Members of the instructional staff of the public
35 schools, subject to the rules of the State Board of Education
36 and the district school board, shall teach efficiently and
37 faithfully, using the books and materials required that meet the
38 highest standards for professionalism and historical accuracy,
39 following the prescribed courses of study, and employing
40 approved methods of instruction, the following:
41 (h) The history of African Americans, including the history
42 of African peoples before the political conflicts that led to
43 the development of slavery, the passage to America, the
44 enslavement experience, abolition, and the contributions of
45 African Americans to society. Instructional materials shall
46 include the contributions of African Americans to American
47 society. The department shall develop and offer standards and
48 curriculum for the instruction required by this paragraph and
49 may seek input from the Commissioner of Education’s African
50 American History Task Force or from any state or nationally
51 recognized African American history educational organization
52 during the development of such standards and curriculum. The
53 department may also seek input from the Commissioner of
54 Education’s African American History Task Force or contract with
55 a recognized museum of African American history to develop
56 training for instructional staff and grade-appropriate classroom
57 resources to support the developed curriculum.
58
59 The State Board of Education is encouraged to adopt standards
60 and pursue assessment of the requirements of this subsection. A
61 character development program that incorporates the values of
62 the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor and that is
63 offered as part of a social studies, English Language Arts, or
64 other schoolwide character building and veteran awareness
65 initiative meets the requirements of paragraphs (s) and (t).
66 Section 2. Section 1003.4551, Florida Statutes, is created
67 to read:
68 1003.4551 School district, charter school, and private
69 school implementation of the history of the Holocaust and the
70 history of African Americans.—
71 (1) Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, the department
72 shall annually verify that each school district, charter school,
73 and private school implements the instruction required under s.
74 1003.42(2)(g) and (h), relating to the history of the Holocaust
75 and the history of African Americans, efficiently and faithfully
76 throughout the school district’s, charter school’s, or private
77 school’s entire curriculum, as appropriate. For purposes of this
78 section, the term “private school” means a private school that
79 accepts scholarship students who participate in a scholarship
80 program under chapter 1002.
81 (2) Beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, each school
82 district, charter school, and private school must:
83 (a) Develop, and each district school board, charter school
84 governing board, and private school director or similar
85 administrator must adopt, a plan for the implementation of the
86 history of the Holocaust and the history of African Americans
87 required instruction and publicize such plan in the school
88 district’s, charter school’s, or private school’s curriculum
89 guides and on the school district’s, charter school’s, or
90 private school’s website.
91 (b) Develop and implement an ongoing professional
92 development plan for training instructional staff in strategies
93 for teaching the history of the Holocaust and the history of
94 African Americans. The school district, charter school, or
95 private school must allocate adequate resources to structured
96 professional development programs and for enhancing the
97 instruction of the history of the Holocaust and the history of
98 African Americans in an infused format.
99 (c) Integrate curricula for the history of the Holocaust
100 and the history of African Americans which meet the requirements
101 of s. 1003.42(2)(g) and (h) as part of the school district’s,
102 charter school’s, or private school’s curriculum. Such curricula
103 must be distributed to curriculum specialists, teachers, media
104 specialists, and other instructional staff. The school district,
105 charter school, or private school must ensure that adequate
106 instructional resources, including, but not limited to, books,
107 compact discs, digital media, and lesson plans, are available to
108 support such instruction.
109 (d) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
110 African Americans content in lesson plans for the entire school
111 year, as appropriate.
112 (e) Approve methods for teaching and assessing the history
113 of the Holocaust and the history of African Americans curricula.
114 (f) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
115 African Americans content in any preparations for statewide
116 assessments, as appropriate.
117 (g) Include the history of the Holocaust and the history of
118 African Americans content in all appropriate subject areas.
119 (h) Partner with a state university for the development and
120 implementation of professional development, curricula, and
121 instructional support, including jointly seeking external
122 funding and preparing teachers and other instructional staff to
123 teach the history of the Holocaust and the history of African
124 Americans.
125 (i) Develop strategies to involve parents in the
126 implementation of the curricula for the history of the Holocaust
127 and the history of African Americans, including through
128 awareness information sessions.
129 (j) Partner with community members in the development and
130 ongoing implementation of the history of the Holocaust and the
131 history of African Americans curricula. To better connect
132 students to the study of African American history and allow
133 students to experience places, artifacts, and activities that
134 authentically represent and are connected to our nation’s
135 African American history, members of the instructional staff are
136 encouraged to include the use of the United States National Park
137 Service’s Teaching with Historic Places curriculum and tours of
138 locations listed on the National Register of Historic Places,
139 houses, parks, and cemeteries, in the study of the history of
140 African Americans when practicable.
141 (3) By August 1, 2023, and annually thereafter, each
142 district school superintendent, charter school principal, and
143 private school director or similar administrator shall provide
144 to the department, in a format prescribed by the department,
145 evidence of school district, charter school, and private school
146 compliance with subsection (2). If a district school
147 superintendent, charter school principal, or private school
148 director or similar administrator fails to provide such
149 evidence, he or she is subject to the following penalties:
150 (a) For a district school superintendent, he or she must
151 provide a written explanation to the district school board and
152 the Commissioner of Education to explain the district school
153 superintendent’s failure to provide such evidence.
154 (b) For a charter school principal, his or her charter
155 school is deemed in violation of its charter with the school
156 district until he or she provides such evidence.
157 (c) For a private school director or similar administrator,
158 his or her private school may not receive any state funds from a
159 scholarship program under chapter 1002 until he or she provides
160 such evidence.
161 (4) The State Board of Education may adopt rules to
162 administer this section.
163 Section 3. Paragraph (a) of subsection (3) of section
164 1008.22, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
165 1008.22 Student assessment program for public schools.—
166 (3) STATEWIDE, STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT PROGRAM.—The
167 Commissioner of Education shall design and implement a
168 statewide, standardized assessment program aligned to the core
169 curricular content established in the Next Generation Sunshine
170 State Standards. The commissioner also must develop or select
171 and implement a common battery of assessment tools that will be
172 used in all juvenile justice education programs in the state.
173 These tools must accurately measure the core curricular content
174 established in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.
175 Participation in the assessment program is mandatory for all
176 school districts and all students attending public schools,
177 including adult students seeking a standard high school diploma
178 under s. 1003.4282 and students in Department of Juvenile
179 Justice education programs, except as otherwise provided by law.
180 If a student does not participate in the assessment program, the
181 school district must notify the student’s parent and provide the
182 parent with information regarding the implications of such
183 nonparticipation. The statewide, standardized assessment program
184 shall be designed and implemented as follows:
185 (a) Statewide, standardized comprehensive assessments.—The
186 statewide, standardized English Language Arts (ELA) assessments
187 shall be administered to students in grades 3 through 10. Retake
188 opportunities for the grade 10 ELA assessment must be provided.
189 Reading passages and writing prompts for ELA assessments shall
190 incorporate grade-level core curricula content from social
191 studies and, when appropriate, curricula content from the
192 history of the Holocaust and the history of African Americans.
193 The statewide, standardized Mathematics assessments shall be
194 administered annually in grades 3 through 8. The statewide,
195 standardized Science assessment shall be administered annually
196 at least once at the elementary and middle grades levels. In
197 order to earn a standard high school diploma, a student who has
198 not earned a passing score on the grade 10 ELA assessment must
199 earn a passing score on the assessment retake or earn a
200 concordant score as authorized under subsection (9). Statewide,
201 standardized ELA and Mathematics assessments in grades 3 through
202 6 must be delivered in a paper-based format.
203 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.