We’re pleased to announce that Media Literacy is law in Washington State! Yesterday at 3:30pm, Governor Jay Inslee signed Substitute Senate Bill No. 6273 into law!
Washington passed the first bill in the country to address media literacy, digital citizenship and internet safety education in its schools! The bill represented a major milestone for media literacy education!
This bill has made us the first state in the country to pass media literacy legislation and has made Washington the model state.
The bill requires that all stakeholders “engage in an ongoing discussion on safe technology use, internet use, digital citizenship, and media literacy as part of implementing the state’s basic education goal” and requires that the government “must convene and consult with an advisory committee when developing best practices and recommendations for instruction in digital citizenship, internet safety, and media literacy.”
The bill was first proposed late last year by Action for Media Education to State Senator Marko Liias, who sponsored the bill. The bill was then written by AME board members in consultation with Liias’ staff.
Those involved in helping form the bill were AME directors Marilyn Cohen and Barbara Johnson, AME president Claire Beach, media literacy educators Nick Pernisco, Michael Danielson, Ethan Delavan,and Lilia Cabello Drain, and media literacy activists Linda Kennedy Franklin, Lynn Ziegler, Cheryl Hidalgo, John Engerman, and Dalia Mendoza.
Thank you to all who have contributed so much time and energy to this effort!
