STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2842
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 25, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. LANZA -- 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 courses of instruction
on the constitution of the United States and the federalist papers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 2 and 3 of section 801 of the education law,
2 subdivision 2 as amended by chapter 481 of the laws of 1949 and subdivi-
3 sion 3 as amended by section 27 of part A of chapter 56 of the laws of
4 2020, are amended and a new subdivision 6 is added to read as follows:
5 2. The regents shall prescribe courses of instruction in the history,
6 meaning, significance and effect of the provisions of the constitution
7 of the United States, the amendments thereto, the federalist papers, the
8 declaration of independence, the constitution of the state of New York
9 and the amendments thereto, to be maintained and followed in all of the
10 schools of the state. The boards of education and trustees of the
11 several cities and school districts of the state shall require instruc-
12 tion to be given in such courses, by the teachers employed in the
13 schools therein. All pupils attending such schools, in the eighth and
14 higher grades, shall attend upon such instruction.
15 Similar courses of instruction shall be prescribed and maintained in
16 private schools in the state, and all pupils in such schools in grades
17 or classes corresponding to the instruction in the eighth and higher
18 grades of the public schools shall attend upon such courses. If such
19 courses are not so established and maintained in a private school,
20 attendance upon instruction in such school shall not be deemed substan-
21 tially equivalent to instruction given to pupils in the public schools
22 of the city or district in which such pupils reside.
23 3. The regents shall determine the subjects to be included in such
24 courses of instruction in patriotism, citizenship, civic education and
25 values, our shared history of diversity, the role of history of diversi-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02282-01-3
S. 2842 2
1 ty, the role of religious tolerance in this country, and human rights
2 issues, with particular attention to the study of the inhumanity of
3 genocide, slavery (including the freedom trail and underground rail-
4 road), the Holocaust, and the mass starvation in Ireland from 1845 to
5 1850, and in the history, meaning, significance and effect of the
6 provisions of the constitution of the United States, the amendments
7 thereto, the federalist papers, the declaration of independence, the
8 constitution of the state of New York and the amendments thereto, and
9 the period of instruction in each of the grades in such subjects. They
10 shall adopt rules providing for attendance upon such instruction and for
11 such other matters as are required for carrying into effect the objects
12 and purposes of this section. The commissioner shall be responsible for
13 the enforcement of such section and shall cause to be inspected and
14 supervise the instruction to be given in such subjects. The commissioner
15 may, in his discretion, cause all or a portion of the public school
16 money to be apportioned to a district or city to be withheld for failure
17 of the school authorities of such district or city to provide instruc-
18 tion in such courses and to compel attendance upon such instruction, as
19 herein prescribed, and for a non-compliance with the rules of the
20 regents adopted as herein provided.
21 6. The regents shall establish and implement a course of instruction
22 on the history, meaning, significance and effect of the federalist
23 papers and the provisions of the constitution of the United States and
24 all amendments thereto. Such course of instruction established pursuant
25 to this subdivision shall be provided to all pupils in grades nine
26 through twelve.
27 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
28 the date on which it shall have become a law.
