STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5405--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 21, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. HARCKHAM, MAYER, ADDABBO, CLEARE, MARTINEZ, PARKER,
WEBER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be
committed to the Committee on Education -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring hate crime
awareness curriculum or instruction for school districts
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 804-e
2 to read as follows:
3 § 804-e. Hate crime awareness curriculum or instruction. 1. The
4 commissioner, in consultation with the division of human rights and any
5 other appropriate agency, shall establish hate crime awareness curric-
6 ulum or instruction for school districts, including, but not limited to,
7 instruction on what discrimination and religious intolerance, including
8 anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, might look like as well as the positive
9 actions students can take to promote acceptance, inclusion, and the
10 diversity of their communities. The content of such curriculum or
11 instruction may be varied to meet the needs of particular school
12 districts, or portions thereof, and need not be uniform throughout the
13 state. The content of such curriculum or instruction shall be age
14 appropriate and shall be developed according to the needs and abilities
15 of pupils at successive grade levels in order to provide skills, infor-
16 mation, and guidance to aid in hate crime awareness.
17 2. Schools may include the curriculum or instruction required by this
18 section as a component of its social studies curriculum or in any other
19 manner the school deems appropriate.
20 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
21 the date upon which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately,
22 the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation neces-
23 sary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
24 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.
LBD01604-03-5
