Education (Curriculum)

Creates a computer science course requirement for graduation from high school; directs the department of education to design and implement such program.

This bill requires New York State schools to include "Staten Island's Sandy Ground community" - identified as the oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the U.S. - in civic education and history curricula. It mandates that all public and private schools teach about Sandy Ground alongside other historical topics like slavery, the Holocaust, and the Irish Famine. The law directs school boards to ensure instruction on this community for students over age eight, integrating it into required courses on citizenship, diversity, and human rights. The policy change directly affects all New York schools and students, embedding this specific historical site into state-mandated curriculum standards.

Senate Bill S 7743 mandates that public schools include instruction in cursive writing as part of their standard curriculum. The bill requires that by the end of fifth grade, students are able to create readable documents using legible cursive handwriting. This legislation directly affects public school students and educators by integrating cursive instruction into the basic education program.