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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 957
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 4792
Referred to Committee on EDUCATION
Introduced by:
(ED)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E INCLUSION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICU LUM, PROGRAMS
OF TEACHER PREPARATI ON AND IN-SERVICE TRAINING
PROGRAMS FOR TEACHER S.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 10-16b of the general statutes is 1
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 2
1, 2019): 3
(a) In the public schools the program of instruction offered shall 4
include at least the following subject matter, as taught by legally 5
qualified teachers, the arts; career education; consumer education; 6
health and safety, including, but not limited to, human growth and 7
development, nutrition, first aid, including cardiopulmonary 8
resuscitation training in accordance with the provisions of section 10-9
16qq, disease prevention and cancer awareness, including, but not 10
limited to, age and developmentally appropriate instruction in 11
performing self-examinations for the purposes of screening for breast 12
cancer and testicular cancer, community and consumer health, 13 Raised Bill No. 957
LCO No. 4792 2 of 4
physical, mental and emotional health, including youth suicide 14
prevention, substance abuse prevention, including instruction relating 15
to opioid use and related disorders, safety, which shall include the safe 16
use of social media, as defined in section 9-601, and may include the 17
dangers of gang membership, and accident prevention; language arts, 18
including reading, writing, grammar, speaking and spelling; 19
mathematics; physical education; science, which may include the 20
climate change curriculum described in subsection (d) of this section; 21
social studies, including, but not limited to, citizenship, economics, 22
geography, government, history and Holocaust and genocide 23
education and awareness in accordance with the provisions of section 24
10-18f; computer science, including, but not limited to, computer 25
programming instruction; and in addition, on at least the secondary 26
level, one or more world languages and vocational education. For 27
purposes of this subsection, world languages shall include American 28
Sign Language, provided such subject matter is taught by a qualified 29
instructor under the supervision of a teacher who holds a certificate 30
issued by the State Board of Education. For purposes of this 31
subsection, the "arts" means any form of visual or performing arts, 32
which may include, but not be limited to, dance, music, art and theatre. 33
Sec. 2. Subsection (d) of section 10-145a of the general statutes is 34
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 35
1, 2019): 36
(d) On and after July 1, [1998] 2019, any [candidate in a] program of 37
teacher preparation leading to professional certification shall [complete 38
a] include, as part of the curriculum, instruction in computer science, 39
and other information technology skills, [component of such program,] 40
as applied to student learning and classroom instruction, 41
communications, [and] data management, programming and coding. 42
Sec. 3. Subsection (a) of section 10-220a of the general statutes is 43
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 44
1, 2019): 45 Raised Bill No. 957
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(a) Each local or regional board of education shall provide an in-46
service training program for its teachers, administrators and pupil 47
personnel who hold the initial educator, provisional educator or 48
professional educator certificate. Such program shall provide such 49
teachers, administrators and pupil personnel with information on (1) 50
the nature and the relationship of alcohol and drugs, as defined in 51
subdivision (17) of section 21a-240, to health and personality 52
development, and procedures for discouraging their abuse, (2) health 53
and mental health risk reduction education that includes, but need not 54
be limited to, the prevention of risk-taking behavior by children and 55
the relationship of such behavior to substance abuse, pregnancy, 56
sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV-infection and AIDS, as 57
defined in section 19a-581, violence, teen dating violence, domestic 58
violence and child abuse, (3) school violence prevention, conflict 59
resolution, the prevention of and response to youth suicide and the 60
identification and prevention of and response to bullying, as defined in 61
subsection (a) of section 10-222d, except that those boards of education 62
that implement any evidence-based model approach that is approved 63
by the Department of Education and is consistent with subsection (c) 64
of section 10-145a, sections 10-222d, 10-222g and 10-222h, subsection 65
(g) of section 10-233c and sections 1 and 3 of public act 08-160, shall not 66
be required to provide in-service training on the identification and 67
prevention of and response to bullying, (4) cardiopulmonary 68
resuscitation and other emergency life saving procedures, (5) the 69
requirements and obligations of a mandated reporter, [and] (6) the 70
detection and recognition of, and evidence-based structured literacy 71
interventions for, students with dyslexia, as defined in section 10-3d, 72
and (7) computer science, including, but not limited to, computer 73
programming. Each local or regional board of education may allow 74
any paraprofessional or noncertified employee to participate, on a 75
voluntary basis, in any in-service training program provided pursuant 76
to this section. 77
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
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Section 1 July 1, 2019 10-16b(a)
Sec. 2 July 1, 2019 10-145a(d)
Sec. 3 July 1, 2019 10-220a(a)
Statement of Purpose:
To include computer science instruction in the public school
curriculum, programs of teacher preparation and in-service training
programs for teachers.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]