Florida Senate - 2016 SB 1056
By Senator Bullard
39-00522B-16 20161056__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to education in public schools
3 concerning human sexuality; providing a short title;
4 requiring public schools that provide certain
5 information or programs to students relating to human
6 sexuality to provide information that meets specified
7 criteria; providing definitions; requiring schools to
8 make certain curriculum available to parents and
9 guardians upon request; authorizing students to be
10 excused from certain portions of a program or class
11 under certain circumstances; prohibiting an excused
12 student from disciplinary action, academic penalty, or
13 any other form of punishment for being excused;
14 authorizing a parent or guardian to seek review of a
15 school’s compliance; providing for district school
16 superintendents, district schools boards, and the
17 Commissioner of Education to review compliance and
18 take corrective actions; repealing s. 1003.46, F.S.,
19 relating to health education and instruction in
20 acquired immune deficiency syndrome; providing for
21 severability; providing an effective date.
22
23 WHEREAS, fifty-nine percent of all pregnancies in Florida
24 are described as “unintended,” and, in 2010, Florida spent $1.3
25 million on births resulting from unintended pregnancies, and
26 WHEREAS, in 2013, Florida had the 29th highest birthrate
27 among women between the ages of 15 to 19, and Florida was one of
28 only three states whose number of births rose in 2012 and 2013,
29 and
30 WHEREAS, between federal fiscal years 1996-1997 and 2009
31 2010, Congress disbursed a total of over 1.5 billion tax dollars
32 into abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, with funding for
33 such programs continuing today, and
34 WHEREAS, scientific evidence contends that comprehensive
35 sex education helps adolescents withstand social pressures and
36 promotes healthy, responsible, and mutually protective
37 relationships once adolescents do become sexually active and
38 that withholding such information contributes to uninformed
39 adolescents who can carry habits and misinformation into
40 adulthood, and
41 WHEREAS, adolescents and young adults between the ages of
42 15 to 24 account for nearly half of the 20 million new cases of
43 sexually transmitted infections each year and, in 2014, 16
44 percent of reported new HIV infections were from individuals
45 under the age of 25, and
46 WHEREAS, Florida has the 4th highest number of syphilis
47 cases in the nation and, in 2013, had the highest rate of new
48 HIV infections, and
49 WHEREAS, providing adolescents with comprehensive and age
50 appropriate sex education will give them the information
51 necessary to make responsible decisions about their sexual
52 health and provide a common-sense solution to reducing
53 unintended adolescent pregnancies and cases of sexually
54 transmitted diseases, NOW, THEREFORE,
55
56 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
57
58 Section 1. The Florida Healthy Adolescent Act.—
59 (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Healthy
60 Adolescent Act.”
61 (2) Each public school that directly or indirectly receives
62 state funding and that provides information, offers programs, or
63 contracts with third parties to provide information or offer
64 programs regarding human sexuality, including family planning,
65 pregnancy, or sexually transmitted infections prevention,
66 including the prevention of HIV and AIDS, shall provide
67 comprehensive, medically accurate, and factual information that
68 is developmentally and age appropriate.
69 (3) As used in this section, the term:
70 (a) “Comprehensive information” means information that:
71 1. Helps young people gain knowledge about the physical,
72 biological, and hormonal changes of adolescence and subsequent
73 stages of human maturation;
74 2. Develops the knowledge and skills necessary to protect
75 young people with respect to their sexual and reproductive
76 health and to promote an understanding of sexuality as a normal
77 part of human development;
78 3. Helps young people gain knowledge about responsible
79 decisionmaking;
80 4. Is culturally competent and appropriate for use with
81 students of any race, gender, gender identity, sexual
82 orientation, and ethnic and cultural background;
83 5. Develops healthy attitudes and behaviors concerning
84 growth, development, and body image;
85 6. Encourages young people to practice healthy life skills,
86 including negotiation and refusal skills, to assist in
87 overcoming peer pressure and using effective decisionmaking
88 skills to avoid high-risk activities;
89 7. Promotes self-esteem and positive interpersonal skills,
90 focusing on skills needed to develop healthy relationships and
91 interactions, and provides young people with the knowledge and
92 skills necessary to have healthy, positive, and safe
93 relationships and behaviors; and
94 8. Includes medically accurate information about all
95 methods of contraception and each method’s effectiveness rate,
96 including, but not limited to, abstinence.
97 (b) “Developmentally and age appropriate” means suitable
98 for particular ages or age groups of children and adolescents
99 and based on the developing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral
100 capacity typical for that age or age group.
101 (c) “Factual information” includes, but is not limited to,
102 medical, psychiatric, psychological, empirical, and statistical
103 statements.
104 (d) “Medically accurate information” means information
105 relevant to informed decisionmaking that is based on scientific
106 evidence; consistent with generally recognized scientific
107 theory; conducted under accepted scientific methods; published
108 in peer-reviewed journals; and recognized as accurate,
109 objective, and complete by mainstream professional
110 organizations, including the American Medical Association, the
111 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the
112 American Public Health Association, and the American Academy of
113 Pediatrics, government agencies, including the United States
114 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States
115 Food and Drug Administration, the United States Department of
116 Health’s National Institutes of Health, and scientific advisory
117 groups, including the Institute of Medicine and the Advisory
118 Committee on Immunization Practices. The deliberate withholding
119 of information that is needed to protect the life and health of
120 an individual is considered medically inaccurate.
121 (4)(a) Each public school that provides information, offers
122 programs, or contracts with a third party to provide information
123 or offer programs regarding human sexuality under this section
124 must provide the curriculum for review to a parent or guardian
125 upon request.
126 (b) A student may be excused from the portion of a program
127 or class that provides information relating to human sexuality
128 pursuant to this section upon written request by the student’s
129 parent or guardian. A student excused from the program or class
130 may not be subject to disciplinary action, academic penalty, or
131 any other form of punishment for being excused from that portion
132 of the program or class.
133 (5)(a) The parent or guardian of a student who is enrolled
134 in a school subject to the requirements of subsection (2) may
135 file a complaint with the district school superintendent if the
136 parent or guardian believes the school is not in compliance with
137 such requirements. Within 30 days after receipt of a complaint,
138 the district school superintendent shall take any warranted
139 corrective action and provide the complainant and the school
140 principal with written notice of the corrective action, if any,
141 that was taken.
142 (b) A parent or guardian who is not satisfied with the
143 district school superintendent’s response to the filed complaint
144 may file an appeal with the district school board within 30 days
145 after receiving the district school superintendent’s written
146 notice of any corrective action or, if notice was not timely
147 provided under paragraph (a), within 60 days after the complaint
148 was filed with the district school superintendent. Within 30
149 days after receipt of an appeal under this paragraph, the
150 district school board shall take any warranted corrective action
151 and provide the appellant and the district school superintendent
152 with a written notice of what, if any, corrective action was
153 taken.
154 (c) A parent or guardian who is not satisfied with the
155 district school board’s response to such an appeal may file an
156 appeal with the Commissioner of Education within 30 days after
157 receiving the district school board’s written notice of any
158 corrective action taken or, if notice was not timely provided
159 under paragraph (b), within 60 days after the appeal was filed
160 with the school board. The commissioner shall investigate the
161 claim and make a finding regarding compliance with subsection
162 (2). Upon a finding of substantial noncompliance, the
163 commissioner shall take corrective action, including, but not
164 limited to, notifying the parent or guardian of each student
165 enrolled in the school that the school is in violation of state
166 law.
167 Section 2. Section 1003.46, Florida Statutes, is repealed.
168 Section 3. If any provision of this act or its application
169 to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity
170 does not affect the remaining provisions or applications of the
171 act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or
172 application, and to this end the provisions of this act are
173 severable.
174 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.