HB7 Summary

• Prohibits state agencies, local boards of education, and public institutions of higher education from promoting, endorsing, or requiring affirmation of divisive concepts relating to race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.

• Defines divisive concepts as including assertions that individuals are inherently superior/inferior based on race or ethnicity, that individuals should be discriminated against based on these characteristics, or that individuals are inherently racist or responsible for historical actions based on their demographic group.

• Prohibits conditioning enrollment or attendance in classes or trainings on the basis of race or color, and prevents requiring participation in trainings that promote divisive concepts.

• Authorizes state agencies and political subdivisions to discipline or terminate employees or contractors who knowingly violate the act, subject to existing appeal procedures for local education board employees.

• Permits objective teaching of divisive concepts in academic instruction without endorsement, allows response to participant questions during mandatory training, and does not prevent instruction to meet accreditation standards or inhibit First Amendment rights and academic freedom.