Essential Academic Learning Requirements include four civics standards across grades, with benchmarks for grades 5, 8 and high school. Standard #4 is "The student understands the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the principles of democratic civic involvement."

Revised in December 2003, the frameworks cover grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-One of the stated goals of the Frameworks and social studies education is “ Civic Responsibility: To help students become active, engaged participants in our democracy.”