The Facts

SFUSD plans to auto-enroll all ninth graders in a yearlong ethnic studies course using Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey. Because it runs the full school year, it takes up an entire ninth-grade course slot that could otherwise go to other academic or elective classes.

The vote to adopt the new Ethnic Studies curriculum will happen at the Tuesday, April 28th Board of Education meeting. However, the year-long mandate is not on the agenda and is a holdover from the School Board that voters recalled in 2022. It will remain the default unless the current Board takes action to change it.

The Context

California’s AB 101 was written so the ethnic studies graduation requirement only takes effect once the Legislature appropriates funding for it. The 2025-26 state budget did not include that funding, and EdSource reports the omission effectively halted the mandate for now. Districts are not currently bound by the fall 2025 deadline to offer the course, and the latent class-of-2030 requirement — if and when it activates — is one semester. A full-year requirement is a local policy choice, not a state mandate.

Other California districts are scaling back. Mountain View-Los Altos recently cut its required yearlong course to one semester.

SFUSD is still working through deep budget cuts and ongoing fiscal pressure. The district’s progress monitoring reported eighth-grade math proficiency at 41% in 2024-25.

The GrowSF Take

We support changing the curriculum from SF's homegrown course to an established curriculum like Voices, but we wish the Board would take this opportunity to right-size the requirement to one semester.

SFUSD is choosing the most expansive version of a policy the state has not even funded into existence. AB 101's eventual requirement is one semester, and right now it isn't even an active requirement. Mandating a full year is a local choice, and it's the wrong one when core academic outcomes — like 41% eighth-grade math proficiency — still need attention.

The full-year ninth grade mandate that students will face takes up an entire elective slot that many students could otherwise use to build skills for AP and honors coursework, start a language sequence, or explore college and career pathways. There are limited elective slots, so every required class crowds out something else.