HB 2089

Effective for the 2026-2027 school year and subsequent school years, this bill requires local education agencies (LEAs) and public charter schools to recognize November 7 each year as "Victims of Communism Day"" to honor victims of communist regimes. If an LEA or public charter school provides a world history and geography course to enrolled high school students, then the LEA or public charter school must provide the students enrolled in the course with at least 45 minutes of instruction on how victims s uf fered under communist regimes, including through poverty, starvation, migration, systemized lethal violence, and suppression of speech, in conjunction with any of the following topics:  Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution  Joseph Stalin and the Soviet System  Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution  Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge  Nicolás Maduro and the Chavismo movement This bill provides that if Victims of Communism Day is on a day that a high school student who is enrolled in a world history and geography course does not receive instruction for the course, then the student must receive the instruction required by this bill on the next day that the student receives instruction for the course. ON MARCH 9, 2026, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 2089, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 r evises this bill's provision concerning the date that the instruction required by this bill must be provided. This amendment requires that the instruction be taught on Victims of Communism Day ; provided, however, that i f Victims of Communism Day falls on a weekend or any day for which students enrolled in a world history and geography course will not receive instruction for the course, then the instruction must be taught on the next school day for which such students wi ll receive instruction in the course."