STORAGE NAME: h0251b.GOS
DATE: 3/14/2025
1
FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BILL ANALYSIS
This bill analysis was prepared by nonpartisan committee staff and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.
BILL #: HB 251
TITLE: Holocaust Remembrance Day
SPONSOR(S): Tendrich, Harris
COMPANION BILL: None
LINKED BILLS: None
RELATED BILLS: SB 356 (Berman)
Committee References
Student Academic Success
16 Y, 0 N
Government Operations
Education & Employment
SUMMARY
Effect of the Bill:
The bill requires the Governor to proclaim January 27 of each year to be “Holocaust Remembrance Day.” This day
may be observed in public schools, at the State Capitol, and elsewhere as the Governor may designate. Under the
bill, schools may include instruction about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and the contributions of the Jewish
community.
Fiscal or Economic Impact:
None.
JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
ANALYSIS
EFFECT OF THE BILL:
The bill requires the Governor to proclaim January 27 of each year to be “Holocaust Remembrance Day.” This day
may be observed in public schools and by public exercise at 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
may be observed in the schools on the following school day or on such other school day as designated by the local
district school board. Schools may provide instruction about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and positive
contributions of the Jewish community to humanity. (Section 1).
The effective date of the bill is July 1, 2025. (Section 2).
RELEVANT INFORMATION
SUBJECT OVERVIEW:
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.
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, the Governor may annually issue a
proclamation designating April 2 as “Florida State Day” and may designate the week of March 27 to April 2 as
“Pascua Florida Week.”
3 Florida law recognizes the month of September as “American Founders’ Month,” urging all
1
Section 683.08, F.S.
2
Section 683.25, F.S.
3
Section 683.06, F.S. JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
2
civic, fraternal, and religious organizations and public and private educational institutions to recognize this
occasion through appropriate programs and celebrations.
4 The last full week of classes in September is “Celebrate
Freedom Week,” 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
There are 22 statewide legal holidays established in law
6 and 40 special observances and local holidays.
7 The state
recognizes nine paid holidays that are observed by all state branches and agencies.
8
The Holocaust
The Holocaust (1933-1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European
Jews and others by Nazi Germany. In the beginning of Nazi rule, dictator Adolf Hitler used the government to target
and exclude Jews from German society. Among other antisemitic measures, the Nazi German regime enacted
discriminatory laws and organized violence targeting Germany’s Jews.
9
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 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.
10
Commemoration of the Holocaust
The United Nations 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 victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism
and to develop education programs to help prevent future genocides.
11
Holocaust Education in Florida
Since 1994, schools in Florida have been required to incorporate lessons about the holocaust as part of public
school instruction.
12 In 2020, the Legislature directed the Florida Department of Education (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
The 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
4
Section 683.1455, F.S.
5
Section 1003.421, F.S.
6
Section 683.01, F.S.
7
See Sections 683.04–683.336, F.S.
8
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. Id.
9
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Introduction to the Holocaust,
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust (last visited March 12, 2025).
10
Id.
11
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 12, 2025).
12
See Florida Department of Education, Commissioner of Education’s Task Force on Holocaust Education,
https://www.fldoe.org/holocausteducation/#:~:text=Required%20Instruction,Holocaust%20education%20in%20Florida%2
0schools. (last visited March 12, 2025); see also s. 1003.42(2)(g), F.S.
13
Section 1003.42(2)(g), F.S.
14
Florida Department of Education, Next Generation Sunshine Standards – Social Studies, 2021, available at
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/18736/urlt/SR-SocialStudies.pdf. JUMP TO SUMMARY ANALYSIS RELEVANT INFORMATION BILL HISTORY
3
protecting democratic values and institutions, including the policy, definition, and historical and current examples
of anti-Semitism.
15
In July 2021, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted the updated State Standards for Social Studies,
incorporating revised civics and government standards
16 and new standards for grades 5-12 for Holocaust
education for which instruction began in 2023-2024.
17
Each school district must annually certify and provide evidence to the DOE that they have 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 recognizes the second week in November as Holocaust Education Week, which coincides 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 programs, and materials concerning the Holocaust, for school districts,
teachers, parents, and the general public.
20
BILL HISTORY
COMMITTEE REFERENCE ACTION DATE
STAFF
DIRECTOR/
POLICY CHIEF
ANALYSIS
PREPARED BY
Student Academic Success
Subcommittee
16 Y, 0 N 3/11/2025 Sanchez Blank
Government Operations
Subcommittee
Toliver Villa
Education & Employment
Committee
15
Section 1003.42(2)(g), F.S.
16
Chapter 2019-150, s.1, Laws of Fla.
17
Florida Department of Education, Next Generation Sunshine State Standards – Social Studies, 2021, available at
https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/19975/urlt/5-3.pdf.
18
Section 1003.42(2)(g)1., F.S.
19
Id.
20
Florida Department of Education, Holocaust Education Week, https://www.fldoe.org/holocausteducation/holo-ed-
week.stml (last visited March 12, 2025).