STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6123
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 5, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. LIU -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring instruction
on the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States capitol and
its aftermath
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 1 and 3 of section 801 of the education law,
2 as amended by section 27 of part A of chapter 56 of the laws of 2020,
3 are amended to read as follows:
4 1. In order to promote a spirit of patriotic and civic service and
5 obligation and to foster in the children of the state moral and intel-
6 lectual qualities which are essential in preparing to meet the obli-
7 gations of citizenship in peace or in war, the regents of The University
8 of the State of New York shall prescribe courses of instruction in
9 patriotism, citizenship, civic education and values, our shared history
10 of diversity, the role of religious tolerance in this country, and human
11 rights issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity
12 of genocide, slavery (including the freedom trail and underground rail-
13 road), the Holocaust, [and] the mass starvation in Ireland from 1845 to
14 1850, and the January sixth, two thousand twenty-one insurrection at the
15 United States capitol and its aftermath, to be maintained and followed
16 in all the schools of the state. The boards of education and trustees of
17 the several cities and school districts of the state shall require
18 instruction to be given in such courses, by the teachers employed in the
19 schools therein. All pupils attending such schools, over the age of
20 eight years, shall attend upon such instruction.
21 Similar courses of instruction shall be prescribed and maintained in
22 private schools in the state, and all pupils in such schools over eight
23 years of age shall attend upon such courses. If such courses are not so
24 established and maintained in a private school, attendance upon instruc-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07826-01-5
S. 6123 2
1 tion in such school shall not be deemed substantially equivalent to
2 instruction given to pupils of like age in the public schools of the
3 city or district in which such pupils reside.
4 3. The regents shall determine the subjects to be included in such
5 courses of instruction in patriotism, citizenship, civic education and
6 values, our shared history of diversity, the role of history of diversi-
7 ty, the role of religious tolerance in this country, and human rights
8 issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of
9 genocide, slavery (including the freedom trail and underground rail-
10 road), the Holocaust, [and] the mass starvation in Ireland from 1845 to
11 1850, and the January sixth, two thousand twenty-one insurrection at the
12 United States capitol and its aftermath, and in the history, meaning,
13 significance and effect of the provisions of the constitution of the
14 United States, the amendments thereto, the declaration of independence,
15 the constitution of the state of New York and the amendments thereto,
16 and the period of instruction in each of the grades in such subjects.
17 They shall adopt rules providing for attendance upon such instruction
18 and for such other matters as are required for carrying into effect the
19 objects and purposes of this section. The commissioner shall be respon-
20 sible for the enforcement of such section and shall cause to be
21 inspected and supervise the instruction to be given in such subjects.
22 The commissioner may, in [his] their discretion, cause all or a portion
23 of the public school money to be apportioned to a district or city to be
24 withheld for failure of the school authorities of such district or city
25 to provide instruction in such courses and to compel attendance upon
26 such instruction, as herein prescribed, and for a non-compliance with
27 the rules of the regents adopted as herein provided.
28 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
29 the date on which it shall have become a law.
