(a)  Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, every public elementary school and secondary school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) history, including the history of AA and NHPIs in Rhode Island and the Northeast, as well as the contributions of AA and NHPIs toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century onward. These events shall include the contributions made by individual AA and NHPIs in government and the arts, humanities, and sciences, as well as the contributions of AA and NHPI communities to the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the United States. The studying of this material shall constitute an affirmation by students of their commitment to respect the dignity of all races and peoples and to forever eschew every form of discrimination in their lives and careers.

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(b)  The commissioner of elementary and secondary education shall make available to all school districts instructional materials that may be used as guidelines for development of a unit of instruction under this section. Provided, however, each school district shall itself determine the minimum amount of instructional time that qualifies as a unit of instruction satisfying the requirements of this section.