Pupil instruction: animal dissection.

Existing law authorizes a pupil with a moral objection to dissecting or otherwise harming or destroying an animal to refrain from participation in an educational project that involves the harmful or destructive use of animals. Existing law authorizes, if the pupil chooses to refrain and a teacher believes that an adequate alternative education project is possible, the teacher to work with the pupil to develop and agree upon an alternative education project in order to obtain the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. Existing law requires each teacher teaching a course that utilizes live or dead animals or animal parts to inform the pupils of their rights pursuant to these provisions. Existing law applies these provisions to all levels of instruction in all public schools operating programs in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish and implement a system of complaint processing, known as the Uniform Complaint Procedures, for specified educational programs. This bill, if a pupil chooses to refrain from participation in an assessment, education project, or test involving the dissection of animals, would require a teacher to provide an alternative assessment, education project, or test. The bill would prohibit a pupil's grades from being impacted as a means of penalizing the pupil for exercising their rights concerning dissection of animals. The bill would require a teacher to provide, at a pupil's request, any sourcing information provided by the vendor or provider of the animals and information about the chemicals used to preserve the animals for dissection to which the pupil may be exposed. The bill would require a teacher, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, to provide written notice of the pupils' rights that includes specified information, including, among other things, the above-described rights and the complaint procedures described below. The bill would require, by November 1, 2025, the State Department of Education to develop a template that a teacher, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, would be authorized to use to provide this written notice and to make the template available on its internet website. The bill would encourage, by July 1, 2028, public schools to explore using effective alternative methods in lieu of utilizing live or dead animals or animal parts for dissection in a course of study, except as provided. The bill would require the Uniform Complaint Procedures to apply to pupils' rights to refrain from participation in an assessment, education project, or test involving the dissection of animals and to choose an alternative assessment, education project, or test. By imposing additional duties on public schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.