AB347 - Pupil instruction: animal dissection.

Amended IN Assembly March 18, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 347 Introduced by Assembly Member Kalra January 29, 2025 An act to amend Section 33315 of, to amend amend, repeal, and add Sections 32255, 32255.1, 32255.3, 32255.4, 32255.5, and 33315 and 32255.5 of, and to add Section 32255.7 to, the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 347, as amended, Kalra. Pupil instruction: animal dissection. Existing law authorizes a pupil with a moral objection to dissecting or otherwise harming or destroying an animal to refrain from participation in an educational project that involves the harmful or destructive use of animals. Existing law authorizes, if the pupil chooses to refrain and a teacher believes that an adequate alternative education project is possible, the teacher to work with the pupil to develop and agree upon an alternative education project in order to obtain the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. Existing law requires each teacher teaching a course that utilizes uses live or dead animals or animal parts to inform the pupils of their rights pursuant to these provisions. Existing law applies these provisions to all levels of instruction in all public schools operating programs in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish and implement a system of complaint processing, known as the Uniform Complaint Procedures, for specified educational programs. This bill, commencing July 1, 2026, if a pupil chooses to refrain from participation in an assessment, education project, or test assignment or assessment involving the dissection of animals, would require a teacher to provide an alternative assessment, education project, or test. assignment or assessment. The bill would prohibit a pupil’s grades from being impacted as a means of penalizing the pupil for exercising their rights concerning the dissection of animals. The bill would require a teacher to provide, at a pupil’s request, any sourcing information provided by the vendor or provider of the animals and information about the chemicals used to preserve the animals for dissection to which the pupil may be exposed. The bill would require a teacher, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, to provide written notice of the pupils’ rights that includes specified information, including, among other things, the above-described rights and the complaint procedures described below. The bill would require, by November 1, 2026, the start of the 2026–27 school year, the State Department of Education to develop a template that a teacher, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, would be authorized to use to provide this written notice and to make the template available on its internet website. The bill would apply the above-described provisions to all public schools operating programs in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, including, but not limited to, public schools operated by school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or state special schools, to the extent that the public school chooses to offer a course of study that uses live or dead animals or animal parts for purposes of dissection. The bill would encourage, by July 1, 2028, public schools to explore using effective alternative methods in lieu of utilizing using live or dead animals or animal parts for dissection in a course of study, except as provided. The bill would require require, commencing July 1, 2026, the Uniform Complaint Procedures to apply to pupils’ rights to refrain from participation in an assessment, education project, or test assignment or assessment involving the dissection of animals and to choose an alternative assessment, education project, or test. By imposing additional duties on public schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. assignment or assessment. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 32255 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255. As used in this chapter: (a) “Animal” means any living organism of the kingdom animalia, beings that typically differ from plants in capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor response to stimulation by a usually greater mobility with some degree of voluntary locomotor ability and by greater irritability commonly mediated through a more or less centralized nervous system, beings that are characterized by a requirement for complex organic nutrients including proteins or their constituents that are usually digested in an internal cavity before assimilation into the body proper, and beings that are distinguished from typical plants by lack of chlorophyll, by an inability to perform photosynthesis, by cells that lack cellulose walls, and by the frequent presence of discrete complex sense organs. (b) “Alternative assessment,” “alternative education project,” or “alternative test” includes, but is not limited to, the use of video recordings, three-dimensional models, films, books, interactive simulation software and computers, and assessments of knowledge that would provide an alternate avenue for obtaining the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. (c) “Dissection” means the viewing of the, or act of, cutting into the body of an animal cadaver to study its anatomical structure. “Dissection” does not include fixed histological samples of any species, including, but not limited to, plain or stained microscope slides, owl pellets, human autopsy viewing, and plastinated human organs. (d) “Pupil” means a person under 18 years of age who is matriculated in a course of instruction in an educational institution within the scope of Section 32255.5. For the purpose of asserting the pupil’s rights and receiving any notice or response pursuant to this chapter, “pupil” also includes the matriculated minor’s parent or guardian. SEC. 2. Section 32255.1 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255.1. (a) Except as otherwise provided in Section 32255.6, a pupil with a moral objection to the dissection of animals shall notify the pupil’s teacher regarding this objection, upon notification by the school of the pupil’s rights pursuant to Section 32255.4. (b) If a pupil chooses to refrain from participation in an assessment, education project, or test involving the dissection of animals, the teacher shall provide the pupil with an alternative assessment, education project, or test for the purpose of providing the pupil an alternate avenue for obtaining the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. (c) The alternative assessment, education project, or test shall require a comparable time and effort investment by the pupil. It shall not, as a means of penalizing the pupil, be more arduous than the original assessment, education project, or test. (d) A pupil shall not be discriminated against based upon their decision to exercise their rights pursuant to this chapter. (e) A pupil’s grades shall not be impacted as a means of penalizing the pupil for exercising their rights pursuant to this chapter. (f) A pupil’s objection to participating in an assessment, education project, or test pursuant to this section shall be substantiated by a note from the pupil’s parent or guardian. (g) The teacher shall provide, at a pupil’s request, any sourcing information provided by the vendor or provider of the animals and information about the chemicals used to preserve the animals for dissection to which the pupil may be exposed. SEC. 3. Section 32255.3 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255.3. Nothing in this chapter shall prevent a pupil from pursuing the grievance procedures in existing law. SEC. 4. Section 32255.4 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255.4. (a) Each teacher teaching a course that utilizes live or dead animals or animal parts for purposes of dissection, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, shall provide written notice to each pupil and the pupil’s parent or guardian of the pupil’s rights pursuant to this chapter, including all of the following information: (1) A pupil’s right to refrain from participating in an assessment, education project, or test involving the dissection of animals pursuant to Section 32255.1. (2) The prohibition of impact on a pupil’s grades as a means of penalizing the pupil for exercising their rights pursuant to Section 32255.1. (3) A pupil’s right to request, pursuant to Section 32255.1, any sourcing information provided by the vendor or provider of the animals and information about the chemicals used to preserve the animals for dissection to which the pupil may be exposed. (4) The complaint procedures described in Section 33315. (b) By November 1, 2026, the department shall develop a template that a teacher, or a public school on behalf of the teacher, may use to provide written notice pursuant to subdivision (a) and make the template available on its internet website. SEC. 5. Section 32255.5 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255.5. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, this chapter applies to all levels of instruction in all public schools operating programs from kindergarten through grades 1 to 12, inclusive, including, but not limited to, public schools operated by school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or state special schools. SECTION 1. Section 32255 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255. As used in this chapter: (a) “Animal” means any living organism of the kingdom animalia, beings that typically differ from plants in capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor response to stimulation by a usually greater mobility with some degree of voluntary locomotor ability and by greater irritability commonly mediated through a more or less centralized nervous system, beings that are characterized by a requirement for complex organic nutrients including proteins or their constituents that are usually digested in an internal cavity before assimilation into the body proper, and beings that are distinguished from typical plants by lack of chlorophyll, by an inability to perform photosynthesis, by cells that lack cellulose walls, and by the frequent presence of discrete complex sense organs. (b) “Alternative education project” includes, but is not limited to, the use of video recordings, models, films, books, and computers, which would provide an alternate avenue for obtaining the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. “Alternative education project” also includes “alternative test.” (c) “Pupil” means a person under 18 years of age who is matriculated in a course of instruction in an educational institution within the scope of Section 32255.5. For the purpose of asserting the pupil’s rights and receiving any notice or response pursuant to this chapter, “pupil” also includes the parents of the matriculated minor. (d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2026, and, as of January 1, 2027, is repealed. SEC. 2. Section 32255 is added to the Education Code, to read: 32255. For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply: (a) “Animal” means any living organism of the kingdom animalia, beings that typically differ from plants in capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor response to stimulation by a usually greater mobility with some degree of voluntary locomotor ability and by greater irritability commonly mediated through a more or less centralized nervous system, beings that are characterized by a requirement for complex organic nutrients including proteins or their constituents that are usually digested in an internal cavity before assimilation into the body proper, and beings that are distinguished from typical plants by lack of chlorophyll, by an inability to perform photosynthesis, by cells that lack cellulose walls, and by the frequent presence of discrete complex sense organs. (b) “Alternative assignment or assessment” includes, but is not limited to, the use of video recordings, three-dimensional models, films, books, interactive simulation software and computers, and assessments of knowledge that would provide an alternate avenue for obtaining the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. (c) “Dissection” means the viewing of the, or act of, cutting into the body of an animal cadaver to study its anatomical structure. “Dissection” does not include fixed histological samples of any species, including, but not limited to, plain or stained microscope slides, owl pellets, human autopsy viewing, and plastinated human organs. (d) “Pupil” means a person under 18 years of age who is enrolled in a course of study in an educational institution within the scope of Section 32255.5. For the purpose of asserting the pupil’s rights and receiving any notice or response pursuant to this chapter, “pupil” also includes the enrolled minor’s parent or guardian. (e) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2026. SEC. 3. Section 32255.1 of the Education Code is amended to read: 32255.1. (a) Except as otherwise provided in Section 32255.6, any pupil with a moral objection to dissecting or otherwise harming or destroying animals, or any parts thereof, shall notify his or her the pupil’s teacher regarding this objection, upon notification by the school of his or her the pupil’s rights pursuant to Section 32255.4. (b) If the pupil chooses to refrain from participation in an education project involving the harmful or destructive use of animals, and if the teacher believes that an adequate alternative education project is possible, the teacher may work with the pupil to develop and agree upon an alternate education project for the purpose of providing the pupil an alternate avenue for obtaining the knowledge, information, or experience required by the course of study in question. (c) The alternative education project shall require a comparable time and effort investment by the pupil. It shall not, as a means of penalizing the pupil, be more arduous than the original education project. (d) The pupil shall not be discriminated against based upon his or her their decision to exercise his or her their rights pursuant to this chapter. (e) Pupils choosing an alte [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]