HB2508 Engrossed

LRB096 09092 NHT 19233 b






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    AN ACT concerning education.

 
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    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 
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represented in the General Assembly: 


 
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    Section 5. The School Code is amended  by changing Section 
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27-20.3 as follows:
 



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    (105 ILCS 5/27-20.3)  (from Ch. 122, par. 27-20.3)



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    Sec. 27-20.3. Holocaust and Genocide Study. Every public 
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elementary school and
high school shall include in its 
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curriculum a unit of instruction studying
the events of the 
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Nazi atrocities of 1933 to 1945.  This period in world
history 
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is known as the Holocaust, during which 6,000,000 Jews and 
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millions
of non-Jews were exterminated.  One of the universal 
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lessons of the Holocaust is that national, ethnic, racial, or 
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religious hatred can overtake any nation or society, leading to 
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calamitous consequences.  To reinforce that lesson, such 
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curriculum shall include an additional unit of instruction  
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studying other acts of genocide across the globe.  This unit 
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shall include, but not be limited to, the Armenian Genocide, 
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the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, the Pontian Greek Genocide, and 
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more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan. 
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The studying of this material is a
reaffirmation of the 
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commitment of free peoples from all nations to never
again 
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permit the occurrence of another Holocaust and a recognition 
 


 






HB2508 Engrossed
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LRB096 09092 NHT 19233 b




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that crimes of genocide continue to be perpetrated across the 
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globe as they have been in the past and to deter  indifference 
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to crimes against humanity and human suffering wherever they 
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may occur.

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    The State Superintendent of Education may prepare and make 
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available to
all school boards instructional materials which 
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may be used as guidelines
for development of a unit of 
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instruction under this Section; provided,
however, that each 
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school board shall itself determine the minimum amount
of 
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instruction time which shall qualify as a unit of instruction 
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satisfying
the requirements of this Section.

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(Source: P.A. 94-478, eff. 8-5-05.)

 
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    Section 90. The State Mandates Act is amended by adding 
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Section 8.33 as follows:
 
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    (30 ILCS 805/8.33 new)
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    Sec. 8.33. Exempt mandate. Notwithstanding Sections 6 and 8 
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of this Act, no reimbursement by the State is required for the 
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implementation of any mandate created by this amendatory Act of 
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the 96th General Assembly.
 

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    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
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becoming law.