NY S08959

Requires all New York public elementary and high schools to include a curriculum unit on the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1850) that resulted in mass starvation

Amends Education Law Section 801 to add the potato famine to the list of human rights issues requiring instruction alongside genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust

Mandates the Board of Regents prescribe courses with "particular attention to the study of the inhumanity" of the famine

Applies to both public and private schools; private schools must maintain equivalent instruction or student attendance will not count as meeting compulsory education requirements

Takes effect July 1 following enactment