Amendment #7 to S2375

Civics Testing

Mr. Dooley of Norfolk moves to amend the bill by adding the following section: -

“SECTION XXXX. Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 1P the following section: -

Section 1Q. a) All school committees and school districts, public and private, shall provide a civics test for all high school students prior to graduation. Beginning in the 2020-2021 school year, a pupil must correctly answer at least 60 of the 100 questions listed on said civics test, which shall be identical to the civics portion of the naturalization test used by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, in order to graduate from high school or obtain a general equivalency diploma. A pupil who does not obtain a passing score of at least 60 of 100 on said test may retake the test until the pupil obtains a passing score of at least 60 out of 100. Pupils who receive special education shall not be required to achieve passing scores on said civics test in order to graduate from high school.

b) The department of elementary and secondary education shall establish rules and regulations for monitoring adherence to the requirements of subsection (a).”.