Alabama sets grade-specific standards; Alaska defers to districts
Alabama’s 2024 social studies standards prescribe grade-specific requirements for teaching about the September 11 attacks, while Alaska has no statewide mandate and leaves the decision to local school districts.
In Alabama, a 2024 revision to the state’s social studies standards expanded coverage of the modern era, including 9/11, according to the Alabama State Department of Education. Under the revised standards, fifth graders are required to “trace the United States’ military involvement in international conflicts since 1980, including those following the Sept. 11 attacks,” the department said.
High school juniors in Alabama must “evaluate the effectiveness of the United States’ response” to 9/11, the standards say, including the war in Afghanistan, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and passage of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act “granted the federal government sweeping surveillance powers in the interest of pursuing possible terrorists,” according to the Associated Press.
According to the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development, the state has no statewide requirement or specific policy mandating 9/11 instruction, and individual districts decide whether and how to teach it. The department said the state’s “learning objectives support addressing important dates and events in history, which may include Sept. 11, within broader instructional goals.” The department said it is in the early stages of developing “core knowledge” documents to provide more guidance on specific historical events and dates.
The reporting was published September 8, 2026, three days before the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.