Florida Senate - 2017                                     SB 286
       
       
        
       By Senator Steube
       
       23-00472-17                                            2017286__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to human trafficking education in
    3         schools; amending s. 1003.42, F.S.; revising the
    4         required health education in public schools to include
    5         information regarding the dangers and signs of human
    6         trafficking; authorizing a student to opt out of a
    7         specified portion of the health education under
    8         certain circumstances; providing an effective date.
    9          
   10  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   11  
   12         Section 1. Paragraph (n) of subsection (2) of section
   13  1003.42, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   14         1003.42 Required instruction.—
   15         (2) Members of the instructional staff of the public
   16  schools, subject to the rules of the State Board of Education
   17  and the district school board, shall teach efficiently and
   18  faithfully, using the books and materials required that meet the
   19  highest standards for professionalism and historic accuracy,
   20  following the prescribed courses of study, and employing
   21  approved methods of instruction, the following:
   22         (n) Comprehensive health education that addresses concepts
   23  of community health; consumer health; environmental health;
   24  family life, including an awareness of the benefits of sexual
   25  abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of
   26  teenage pregnancy; mental and emotional health; injury
   27  prevention and safety; Internet safety; the dangers and signs of
   28  human trafficking; nutrition; personal health; prevention and
   29  control of disease; and substance use and abuse. The health
   30  education curriculum for students in grades 7 through 12 shall
   31  include a teen dating violence and abuse component that
   32  includes, but is not limited to, the definition of dating
   33  violence and abuse, the warning signs of dating violence and
   34  abusive behavior, the characteristics of healthy relationships,
   35  measures to prevent and stop dating violence and abuse, and
   36  community resources available to victims of dating violence and
   37  abuse. The human trafficking education portion of the health
   38  curriculum shall include, but is not limited to, information on
   39  the warning signs of human trafficking, terms used by
   40  traffickers, red flags that would indicate a trafficker’s
   41  malicious intent toward a student, websites that are popular
   42  with traffickers, and details on how a student may get help. A
   43  student may elect to opt out of the instruction of this portion
   44  of the health education by providing the school with a written
   45  note from his or her parent.
   46  
   47  The State Board of Education is encouraged to adopt standards
   48  and pursue assessment of the requirements of this subsection.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.