00                HOUSE CS FOR CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 29(EDC)                                                             
01 "An Act relating to civics education, civics assessments, and secondary school                                          
02 graduation requirements; and providing for an effective date."                                                          
03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
04    * Section 1. AS 14.03 is amended by adding a new section to read:                                                  
05 Sec. 14.03.076. Comparative government and civics curriculum and                                                      
06 assessment requirement. (a) The board shall develop and periodically review a                                         
07 statewide comparative government and civics education curriculum and assessment                                         
08 that are based on the civics portion of the naturalization examination used by the                                      
09 United States Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland                                        
10 Security and primary source documents. The curriculum and assessment must also                                          
11 include, to the maximum extent practicable, comparative systems of government used                                      
12 around the world and those used by Alaska Natives. The assessment must include a                                        
13 project-based assessment option. A district may use the curriculum to educate students                                  
14       in comparative government and civics.                                                                             

01 (b)  The curriculum and assessment developed under (a) of this section must                                             
02 include at least three hours of instruction about the history of communist regimes                                      
03 around the world, including information about suppression of speech and the rates of                                    
04 poverty, starvation, migration, and systemic lethal violence in those regimes, and must                                 
05       include discussion of                                                                                             
06                 (1)  Mao Zedong and the Chinese cultural revolution;                                                    
07                 (2)  Vladimir Lenin and the Russian revolution;                                                         
08                 (3)  Joseph Stalin and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;                                         
09                 (4)  Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution;                                                             
10                 (5)  Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; or                                                                    
11                 (6)  Nicolás Maduro and the chavismo movement.                                                          
12 (c)  A school may not issue a secondary school diploma to a student unless the                                          
13 student has completed one semester of a comparative government and civics education                                     
14       course taught using the curriculum developed under (a) and (b) of this section and                                
15 (1)  has achieved a passing score on the comparative government and                                                     
16       civics assessment developed under (a) of this section;                                                            
17 (2)  has completed a project-based assessment developed under (a) of                                                    
18       this section; or                                                                                                  
19 (3)  is a student with a disability who receives a waiver from the                                                      
20       governing body.                                                                                                   
21 (d)  Notwithstanding (c) of this section, a school may issue a secondary school                                         
22 diploma to a student who has not met the requirements of (c) of this section if the                                     
23 student transferred into a state public school after completing grade 10 or has already                                 
24       successfully completed a high school state history course from another state.                                     
25 (e)  If a student has achieved a passing score on the comparative government                                            
26 and civics assessment developed under (a) of this section, the school shall document                                    
27 on the student's transcript that the student achieved a passing score. A student may                                    
28       retake the assessment as needed to achieve a passing score.                                                       
29 (f)  In this section, "passing score" means a student correctly answers 70                                              
30       percent or more of the questions.                                                                                 
31    * Sec. 2. This Act takes effect July 1, 2025.