Asian American History Now Mandatory in Connecticut
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 18 Aug, 2025

A bipartisan bill budgets money for AAPI history to be taught in public schools in Connecticut, followed by other states.

Three years ago, when Connecticut passed HB 5282, the law mandating that Asian American and Pacific Islander studies become part of the state’s public school curriculum, the world looked a bit different.

When lawmakers first began crafting the bill, the COVID-19 pandemic and the unyielding wave of anti-Asian bigotry that it unleashed were still very much on people’s minds.

The State Department of Education partnered with The University of Connecticut's Asian American Studies Lab to meet the new bill's requirements

As was the belief that change towards a more racially just society might actually be possible, following summer 2020’s post-George Floyd BLM protests that galvanized much of the nation. 

Of course, while it may have been the right time for action, the government, as we know, doesn’t always act at lightning speed. 

Now, the bill is finally taking effect, just in time for the 2025-2026 school year. 

The Bill

Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill mandating that AAPI history be taught in the state's schools

Any stereotypes about The AAPI community’s use of overly formal or rigid language will likely not be dispelled by the name of the bill: “An Act Concerning the Inclusion of Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies in the Public School Curriculum.”

According to the bill’s own language, here’s what it does:

For the school year commencing July 1, 2025, and each school year thereafter, each local and regional board of education shall include Asian American and Pacific Islander studies as part of the social studies curriculum for the school district.

The bill further specifies that AAPI studies should include:

The history of AAPI-ers in the state, region, and country

The contributions of AAPI individuals:

- Towards advancing civil rights from the nineteenth century onward

- In government, the arts, humanities and sciences

- To the economic, cultural, social and political development of the United States.

There’s no mandate that AAPI studies take the form of a specific course like, say, an AAPI version of European History. Although some schools are independently choosing to offer such a class. Rather, the bill takes a more holistic approach that encourages teachers of any subject to weave the topic in where applicable.

We might now, for example, expect a greater number of field trips to Asian History museums or see more students choosing to learn about prominent Asian Americans on history day. 

The bill also puts its money where its mouth is by allocating $140,000 from the state budget towards this initiative. The money is largely going towards hiring full time specialists within the Connecticut Department of Education to ensure that the subject matter is implemented in the best way possible. 

The state has been working closely with the University of Connecticut’s Asian American Studies Lab.

The Politics

In a sad statement of current affairs, one might immediately wonder if this bill is even legal. 

After all, a movement led by Republican politicians has sought to scale back or even eliminate certain efforts to promote racial equality. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI — a policy aimed at creating better representation for marginalized groups — has become a taboo topic, particularly since President Trump took office earlier this year and signed an executive order aimed at outlawing the practice in the federal government and parts of the private sector.

Yet, AAPI history largely appears to be exempt from the scorn that’s been directed towards, say, Black History. In fact, state laws requiring that AAPI history be taught in schools have been passed on bipartisan bases. 

Of the 95 state legislators who sponsored Connecticut’s bill, 20 were Republicans.

Even more surprising is the 2023 passage of a similar bill in the solidly-Republican state of Florida.  

Florida’s law, which was sponsored by a Republican state senator and a Republican state representative before being signed by arch-conservative Governor Ron Desantis, mandated, among other things, that the history of internment of Japanese Americans during World War II be taught in public schools.

And, yet, just one year prior, Florida’s republican controlled-government passed the “Stop WOKE Act” which banned the teaching of certain race-related topics in public schools and required students to be taught that African Americans received some ‘personal benefit’ from slavery. No Democrats voted in favor of the bill. 

Connecticut is certainly not alone in the passage of legislation that requires the teaching of AAPI history, though Florida remains the only Republican-controlled state with such a law on the books. 

Some Democratic-led states to have passed such legislation include California, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island. Each state law was created with its own specific requirements. 

Connecticut's, however, is the only one to include the allocation of state funds.

The Landscape

The passage and implementation of laws like Connecticut’s is undoubtedly a cause for celebration. Should these bills meet their intended goal, a generation that grows up with greater knowledge of the AAPI community’s history and positive contributions to their own state will be lagging in the same rates of bigotry and xenophobia as the less educated.

While it may take years if not decades to measure the tangible effects of these bills, the mere passage of them itself is a transformative act with the power to make AAPI individuals feel more included and empowered to express their full identity. 

At the same time, one can’t help but wonder why, Black history seems to be headed in the opposite direction, thus putting African Americans at risk of facing the opposite fate.

The answer could signal a recent increase in the political power of Asian Americans across party lines. It could also speak to the “model minority myth,” the idea that Asians are, as a whole, more successful that other minority groups, and therefore, pose less of a threat. 

Regardless, the AAPI community should celebrate these wins as they come. While, of course, always keeping an eye on the changing political landscape.