Florida Senate - 2021                                    SB 1554
       
       
        
       By Senator Pizzo
       
       
       
       
       
       38-01877-21                                           20211554__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to health education; amending s.
    3         1003.42, F.S.; requiring health education instruction
    4         for certain students to include age-appropriate water
    5         safety instruction; providing requirements for such
    6         instruction; providing an effective date.
    7          
    8  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    9  
   10         Section 1. Paragraph (n) of subsection (2) of section
   11  1003.42, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   12         1003.42 Required instruction.—
   13         (2) Members of the instructional staff of the public
   14  schools, subject to the rules of the State Board of Education
   15  and the district school board, shall teach efficiently and
   16  faithfully, using the books and materials required that meet the
   17  highest standards for professionalism and historical accuracy,
   18  following the prescribed courses of study, and employing
   19  approved methods of instruction, the following:
   20         (n) Comprehensive health education that addresses concepts
   21  of community health; consumer health; environmental health;
   22  family life, including an awareness of the benefits of sexual
   23  abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of
   24  teenage pregnancy; mental and emotional health; injury
   25  prevention and safety; water safety; Internet safety; nutrition;
   26  personal health; prevention and control of disease; and
   27  substance use and abuse. The health education curriculum for
   28  students in grades 7 through 12 shall include a teen dating
   29  violence and abuse component that includes, but is not limited
   30  to, the definition of dating violence and abuse, the warning
   31  signs of dating violence and abusive behavior, the
   32  characteristics of healthy relationships, measures to prevent
   33  and stop dating violence and abuse, and community resources
   34  available to victims of dating violence and abuse. Each school
   35  district shall incorporate age-appropriate water safety
   36  instruction into the health education curriculum for students in
   37  kindergarten through grade 12, including, but not limited to,
   38  the proper use of flotation devices, awareness of water
   39  conditions, how to respond if caught in a rip current, the
   40  proper supervision of swim areas, safe behaviors in and around
   41  the water, the importance of pool barriers and fencing, the
   42  importance of formal swim lessons, the importance of avoiding
   43  alcohol and substance use while engaged in water recreation, and
   44  the importance of the administration of cardiopulmonary
   45  resuscitation to drowning victims, including the importance of
   46  the sequence in which to administer such aid.
   47  
   48  The State Board of Education is encouraged to adopt standards
   49  and pursue assessment of the requirements of this subsection. A
   50  character development program that incorporates the values of
   51  the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor and that is
   52  offered as part of a social studies, English Language Arts, or
   53  other schoolwide character building and veteran awareness
   54  initiative meets the requirements of paragraphs (s) and (t).
   55         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.