New bills introduced during the 2019 Legislative Calendar:
Assembly Bill 331 titled, Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: ethnic studies, revisits AB 2772 from last year’s legislative session proposing to add ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement. The bill was amended to state that starting in the 2023–24 school year, a one-semester course in ethnic studies, in either the subject of social studies or English, based on the model curriculum currently in development, would be required for graduation.
Assembly Bill 493 titled, Teachers: in-service training: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) pupil resources, contingent upon funding, would annually provide in-service training on LGBTQ resources to teachers of grades 7–12, and to all other certificated employees at a school.
Assembly Bill 852 titled, Pupil instruction: academic content standards: update of adopted standards would, by January 1, 2021, require the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to recommend to the State Board of Education, a schedule for the regular review and update of academic content standards in all subject areas, including History–Social Science (HSS).
Assembly Bill 1087 titled, Pupil instruction: requirements for graduation: economics, would specify that the required high school course in economics incorporate topics on financial literacy included in California Education Code 51284.5.
Assembly Bill 1036 titled, Elections: civic outreach and voter engagement, would codify existing regulations requiring counties to establish outreach programs and to meet minimum outreach requirements. Yolo County Office of Education would create a High School Voter Education Pilot Program. $10 million would be appropriated from the General Fund to implement this program.
Assembly Bill 1334 titled, Pupil instruction: history-social science curriculum framework: Korean-American experience, would require the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) and the State Board of Education to include instruction related to the Korean-American experience into the next revision of the HSS Framework.
Assembly Bill 1393 titled, Pupil instruction: model curriculum: Laotian history and cultural studies, requires the IQC, on or before December 31, 2022, to develop and submit to the SBE a model curriculum relative to the history and cultural study of Laotian refugees. The SBE would be required to take action by March 31, 2023. A SBE adopted model curriculum would be posted for voluntary use on the CDE website for use with Kindergarten through grade12 (K–12) students.
Assembly Bill 1552 titled, Pupil instruction: Native American studies: model curriculum, would appropriate $800,000 from the General Fund to the SBE. The appropriation would fund the IQC to develop a model curriculum in Native American studies, which would be up for adoption by the SBE.