California Mandates Additional Attention to LGBT Contributions in Public Schools
Under the new framework, references to the LGBT community will be woven into the existing curriculum, Romesburg said. Students will start learning about the LGBT community as part of family diversity as early as second grade. In fourth grade, Harvey Milk and other LGBT activists will be introduced, and in high school, the students’ work will continue to integrate LGBT contributions. This will finally culminate in 11th-grade U.S. history, which will now include references to the fight for LGBT equality.
The new framework is the product of the FAIR Education Act, which required that LGBT Americans and people with disabilities be added to the list of social and ethnic groups, such as women, immigrants, minorities, and individuals of diverse religious backgrounds, whose contributions schools must include in the curriculum. However, when the law was originally enacted, it was not accompanied by explicit guidance from the state for educators to follow, nor were new textbooks created reflecting a broader focus on the LGBT community.
Source: California Mandates Additional Attention to LGBT Contributions in Public Schools – The Atlantic