Requires every middle school and every high school to provide instruction on vaccine science, including vaccine history and development, effects on the immune system, vaccine-preventable diseases and their spread, and vaccine safety and testing.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3082
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring instruction
on vaccine science in every middle school and every high school
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 805 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 805. Instruction in vaccine science. 1. Every middle school and
4 every high school shall include age-appropriate instruction on vaccine
5 science as an integral part of the required curriculum for health educa-
6 tion.
7 2. The commissioner shall prescribe such rules and regulations regard-
8 ing instruction on vaccine science as the commissioner may deem neces-
9 sary and desirable for the health and welfare of pupils and the communi-
10 ty, which shall include but not be limited to, instruction on the
11 history and development of vaccines, the effect of vaccines on the
12 immune system, diseases that are preventable by vaccines and the spread
13 of such diseases, and vaccine safety and testing. The contents may be
14 varied to meet the needs of particular school districts, or portions
15 thereof, and need not be uniform throughout the state, provided, howev-
16 er, that school districts shall utilize either the curriculum for
17 vaccine science instruction prescribed by the commissioner or a course
18 approved by the commissioner in accordance with criteria established by
19 the commissioner.
20 3. School authorities shall provide the needed facilities, time and
21 place for the instruction set forth in this section and shall provide
22 learning aids and curriculum resource materials which contribute to
23 effective teaching methods and learning in vaccine science.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
25 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately,
26 the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation neces-
27 sary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
28 authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06308-01-5
