On November 13, 2018, the Board of Education approved revisions to BP 6146.1 High School Graduation Requirement which included the addition of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement. On May 14, 2019 the board approved a modification to Board Policy 6146.1 deferring the effective date for the ethnic studies graduation requirement by one year to school year 2024. This adjustment was intended to provide the necessary time and resources to build appropriate organizational capacity to implement the requirement.

On November 18, 2019 the Santa Barbara Unified School District released the request for application for consultant to support the implementation of the new ethnic studies requirement. The application deadline was December 13, 2019. A panel of teachers, administrators and classified staff reviewed the applications on December 16 and interviewed three finalists on January 6, 2020. AMAE was the panel’s clear choice and the opportunity to access a collective of collaborative experts was an incentive. A copy of AMAE’s application is attached as reference.