Pupil instruction: genocide education: the Holocaust.

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. This bill would establish a 15-member Governor's Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education to, among other things, establish best practices for, and promote implementation of, education on genocide, including the Holocaust, and submit an annual report to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would provide that the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Senate Committee on Rules would each appoint 5 members of the council, who would be required to be individuals with particular interest in, or expertise on, genocide, including the Holocaust. The bill would make an appropriation by authorizing the department to use funds donated by private individuals or entities for the purpose of reimbursing members of the council for their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties as members of the council. The bill would strongly encourage local educational agencies, as defined to include school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, with pupils in grades 4 to 12, inclusive, to integrate the best practices into instruction on genocide, including the Holocaust, that meets existing academic content standards and the history-social science curriculum framework for these pupils. The bill would authorize the department to issue grants to local educational agencies for professional development, and would specify that the grant funds would either be appropriated through the annual Budget Act or another statute, or provided through donations to the department from private individuals or entities. To the extent that the bill would authorize the department to make grants with these donated funds, it would make an appropriation. The bill would require the department to conduct a study on the manner in which the instruction is offered to assess the impact of the instruction.