(a) In the public schools the program of instruction offered shall include at least the following subject matter, as taught by legally qualified teachers, the arts; career education; consumer education; personal financial management and financial literacy; health and safety, including, but not limited to, human growth and development, nutrition, first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16qq, disease prevention and cancer awareness, including, but not limited to, age and developmentally appropriate instruction in performing self-examinations for the purposes of screening for breast cancer and testicular cancer, community and consumer health, physical, mental and emotional health, including youth suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, including instruction relating to opioid use and related disorders, safety, which shall include the safe use of social media, as defined in section 9-601, and may include the dangers of gang membership, and accident prevention; language arts, including reading, writing, grammar, speaking and spelling; mathematics; physical education; science, which shall include the climate change curriculum described in subsection (d) of this section; social studies, including, but not limited to, citizenship, economics, geography, government, history and Holocaust and genocide education and awareness in accordance with the provisions of section 10-18f; African-American and black studies in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16ss; Puerto Rican and Latino studies in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16ss; Native American studies, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16vv; computer programming instruction; and in addition, on at least the secondary level, one or more world languages; vocational education; and the black and Latino studies course in accordance with the provisions of sections 10-16tt and 10-16uu. For purposes of this subsection, world languages shall include American Sign Language, provided such subject matter is taught by a qualified instructor under the supervision of a teacher who holds a certificate issued by the State Board of Education. For purposes of this subsection, the “arts” means any form of visual or performing arts, which may include, but not be limited to, dance, music, art and theatre; and “reading” means evidence-based instruction that focuses on competency in oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, rapid automatic name or letter name fluency and reading comprehension.

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(b) If a local or regional board of education requires its pupils to take a course in a world language, the parent or guardian of a pupil identified as deaf or hard of hearing may request in writing that such pupil be exempted from such requirement and, if such a request is made, such pupil shall be exempt from such requirement.

(c) Each local and regional board of education shall on September 1, 1982, and annually thereafter at such time and in such manner as the Commissioner of Education shall request, attest to the State Board of Education that such local or regional board of education offers at least the program of instruction required pursuant to this section, and that such program of instruction is planned, ongoing and systematic.

(d) The State Board of Education shall make available curriculum materials and such other materials as may assist local and regional boards of education in developing instructional programs pursuant to this section. The State Board of Education, within available appropriations and utilizing available resource materials, shall assist and encourage local and regional boards of education to include: (1) Holocaust and genocide education and awareness; (2) the historical events surrounding the Great Famine in Ireland; (3) African-American and black studies; (4) Puerto Rican and Latino studies; (5) Native American studies; (6) personal financial management, including, but not limited to, financial literacy as developed in the plan provided under section 10-16pp; (7) training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of automatic external defibrillators; (8) labor history and law, including organized labor, the collective bargaining process, existing legal protections in the workplace, the history and economics of free market capitalism and entrepreneurialism, and the role of labor and capitalism in the development of the American and world economies; (9) climate change consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards; (10) topics approved by the state board upon the request of local or regional boards of education as part of the program of instruction offered pursuant to subsection (a) of this section; and (11) instruction relating to the Safe Haven Act, sections 17a-57 to 17a-61, inclusive. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection shall be available to each local and regional board of education for the development of curriculum on climate change as described in this subsection.