The Florida Senate
BILL ANALYSIS AND FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
(This document is based on the provisions contained in the legislation as of the latest date listed below.)
Prepared By: The Professional Staff of the Committee on Education Pre-K -12
BILL: SB 832
INTRODUCER: Senator Berman
SUBJECT: Holocaust Remembrance Day
DATE: March 24, 2023
ANALYST STAFF DIRECTOR REFERENCE ACTION
1. Jahnke Bouck ED Favorable
2. GO
3. RC
I. Summary:
SB 832 requires the Governor to proclaim January 27 of each year to be “Holocaust
Remembrance Day,” to be suitably observed in public schools and by public exercise in the State
Capitol and elsewhere as the Governor may designate.
The bill specifies that if January 27 falls on a day that is not a school day, Holocaust
Remembrance Day must be observed in the schools on the preceding school day or on such
school day as may be designated by local school authorities.
The bill requires instruction about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and their harmful impacts on
humanity to be provided as part of public educational instruction on Holocaust Remembrance
day.
The bill has no impact on state revenues and expenditures.
This bill is effective July 1, 2023
II. Present Situation:
Legal Holidays and Observances
Chapter 683, F.S., provides designations for legal holidays and special observances. Recognition
of a legal holiday or special observance may apply statewide or may be limited to a particular
region. For example, “Gasparilla Day”
1
is a legal holiday observed only in Hillsborough County,
while “Bill of Rights Day,”
2
if issued by the Governor, applies throughout the state.
1
Section 683.08, F.S.
2
Section 683.25, F.S.
REVISED: BILL: SB 832 Page 2
Depending on the holiday or special observance, certain actions may be required to be performed
for the commemoration or observance of the date, day, or month. For example, Florida law
recognizes the month of September as “American Founders’ Month,”
3
urging all civic, fraternal,
and religious organizations and public and private educational institutions to recognize this
occasion through appropriate programs and celebrations, and the last full week of classes in
September as “Celebrate Freedom Week,”
4
in which public schools are required to include at
least three hours of grade-appropriate instruction related to the meaning and importance of the
Declaration of Independence in social studies classes.
5
The Governor is directed to proclaim
November 7 of each year as “Victims of Communism Day,” which must be observed in public
schools. In the 2023-2024 school year, high school students enrolled in a United States
Government class must receive at least 45 minutes of instruction on victims who suffered under
specified communist regimes.
6
There are 21 legal holidays
7
established in law and 36 special observances.
8
The state recognizes
nine paid holidays that are observed by all state branches and agencies.
9
The Holocaust
The Holocaust (1933-1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six
million European Jews and others by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. At
the beginning of Nazi rule, Dictator Adolf Hitler used the government to target and exclude Jews
from German society. Among other anti-Semitic measures, the Nazi German regime enacted
discriminatory laws and organized violence targeting Germany’s Jews.
10
The Nazi persecution of Jews became radicalized with the culminated plan known as the “Final
Solution to the Jewish Question”. The “Final Solution” came to fruition during World War II,
with mass shootings and gas poisoning killing centers in concentration camps. About six million
Jews and some five million others, targeted for racial, political, ideological, and behavioral
reasons, died in the Holocaust, more than one million of those who perished were children.
11
Commemoration of the Holocaust
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated January 27, the anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this annual
day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish
3
Section 683.1455, F.S.
4
Section 1003.421, F.S.
5
See Florida Department of Education, American Founders’ Month, http://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-
areas/social-studies/American-Founders-Month.stml (last visited March 22, 2023).
6
Section 683.334, F.S.
7
Section 683.01, F.S.
8
Sections 683.04 - 683.3341, F.S.
9
Section 110.117(1), F.S. Paid state holidays include: New Year’s Day, the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day.
10
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Introduction to the Holocaust,
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust (last visited March 22, 2023).
11
Id. BILL: SB 832 Page 3
victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop education
programs to help prevent future genocides.
12
Holocaust Education in Florida
In 2020, the Legislature directed the DOE to develop standards for Holocaust Education.
13
The
DOE worked closely with the Commissioner of Education’s Task Force on Holocaust Education
and Florida teachers to develop content-rich and developmentally appropriate Holocaust
Education standards. In the process, DOE received and considered comments from state and
nationally recognized Holocaust educational organizations, Florida educators, school
administrators, representatives of the Florida College System and state universities, business and
industry leaders, and the public.
14
In July 2021, the SBE adopted the updated State Standards for Social Studies, incorporating
revised civics and government standards
15
and new standards for grades 5-12 for Holocaust
education.
16
Required instruction on the Holocaust (1933-1945) must include the history of the systematic,
planned annihilation of European Jews and other groups by Nazi Germany, a watershed event in
the history of humanity, and be taught in a manner that leads to an investigation of human
behavior, an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping, and an
examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purposes of
encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting
democratic values and institutions, including the policy, definition, and historical and current
examples of anti-Semitism.
17
Each school district must annually certify and provide evidence to the DOE that they have to
meet the instructional requirements on Holocaust education. In addition, the DOE may contract
with any state or nationally-recognized Holocaust educational organizations to develop training
for instructional personnel and grade-appropriate classroom resources to support the developed
curriculum.
18
Florida recognized the second week in November as Holocaust Education Week, which
coincided with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. Kristallnacht is widely
recognized as a precipitating event that led to the Holocaust.
19
The DOE has created a portal
dedicated to Holocaust Education Week, which offers commemoration resources, educational
12
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/7. See also, United Nations, Outreach Programme on the Holocaust,
https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/observance/ (last visited March 22, 2023).
13
Ch. 2020-88, s. 5, Laws of Fla.
14
Florida Department of Education, Next Generation Sunshine Standards – Social Studies, 2021,
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/18736/urlt/SR-SocialStudies.pdf.
15
Ch. 2019-150, s.1, Laws of Fla.
16
Florida Department of Education, Next Generation Sunshine Standards – Social Studies, 2021,
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/18736/urlt/SR-SocialStudies.pdf.
17
Section 1003.42(2)(g)1., F.S.
18
Id.
19
Section 1003.42(2)(g)2., F.S. BILL: SB 832 Page 4
programs, and materials concerning the Holocaust, for school districts, teachers, parents, and the
general public.
20
III. Effect of Proposed Changes:
SB 832 creates s. 683.045, F.S., to require the Governor to proclaim January 27 of each year to
be “Holocaust Remembrance Day”. This day must be suitably observed in public schools and by
public exercise in the State Capitol and elsewhere as the Governor may designate.
The bill specifies that if January 27 falls on a day that is not a school day, Holocaust
Remembrance Day must be observed in the schools on the preceding school day or on such
school day as may be designated by local school authorities.
The bill requires instruction about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and their harmful impacts on
humanity to be provided as part of public educational instruction on Holocaust Remembrance
day.
This bill is effective July 1, 2023.
IV. Constitutional Issues:
A. Municipality/County Mandates Restrictions:
None.
B. Public Records/Open Meetings Issues:
None.
C. Trust Funds Restrictions:
None.
D. State Tax or Fee Increases:
None.
E. Other Constitutional Issues:
None.
V. Fiscal Impact Statement:
A. Tax/Fee Issues:
None.
20
Florida Department of Education, Holocaust Education Week, https://www.fldoe.org/holocausteducation/holo-ed-
week.stml (last visited March 22, 2023). BILL: SB 832 Page 5
B. Private Sector Impact:
None.
C. Government Sector Impact:
None.
VI. Technical Deficiencies:
None.
VII. Related Issues:
None.
VIII. Statutes Affected:
This bill creates section 683.045 of the Florida Statutes.
IX. Additional Information:
A. Committee Substitute – Statement of Changes:
(Summarizing differences between the Committee Substitute and the prior version of the bill.)
None.
B. Amendments:
None.
This Senate Bill Analysis does not reflect the intent or official position of the bill’s introducer or the Florida Senate.