Title: Education in Public Schools Concerning Human Sexuality

Summary: Deleting criteria for instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, and health education in schools; creating the "Florida Healthy Adolescent Act"; requiring certain public schools that provide information or offer programs to students relating to human sexuality to provide information or offer programs that meet specified criteria; requiring public schools to make a certain curriculum available to parents and guardians upon request; authorizing students to be excused from certain portions of a specified program under certain circumstances, etc.

Full Text:
WHEREAS, percent of all pregnancies in Florida are described as  unintended,  and, in 2010, Florida spent $1.3 million on births resulting from unintended pregnancies, and WHEREAS, in 2013, Florida had the 29th highest birthrate among women between the ages of and 19, and Florida was one of only three states whose number of births rose in 2012 and 2013, and WHEREAS, between federal fiscal years 1996-1997 and 2009 2010, Congress disbursed a total of more than $1.5 billion tax dollars to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, with funding for such programs continuing today, and WHEREAS, scientific evidence contends that comprehensive sex education helps adolescents withstand social pressures and promotes healthy, responsible, and mutually protective relationships once adolescents do become sexually active and that withholding such information contributes to uninformed adolescents who can carry habits and misinformation into adulthood, and WHEREAS, adolescents and young adults between the ages of and account for nearly half of the million new cases of sexually transmitted infections each year and, in 2014, percent of reported new HIV infections were from individuals younger than the age of 25, and WHEREAS, Florida has the 4th highest number of syphilis cases in the nation and, in 2013, had the highest rate of new HIV infections, and WHEREAS, providing adolescents with comprehensive and age appropriate sex education will give them the information necessary to make responsible decisions about their sexual health and provide a common sense solution to reducing unintended adolescent pregnancies and cases of sexually transmitted infections, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Section 1003.46, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 1003.46 Health education; instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome.  (1)  Each district school board may provide instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome education as a specific area of health education. Such instruction may include, but is not limited to, the known modes of transmission, signs and symptoms, risk factors associated with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and means used to control the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The instruction shall be appropriate for the grade and age of the student and shall reflect current theory, knowledge, and practice regarding acquired immune deficiency syndrome and its prevention. (2) Throughout instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, or health education, when such instruction and course material contains instruction in human sexuality, a school shall: (a) Teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school-age students while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage. (b) Emphasize that abstinence from sexual activity is a certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and other associated health problems. (c) Teach that each student has the power to control personal behavior and encourage students to base actions on reasoning, self-esteem, and respect for others. (d) Provide instruction and material that is appropriate for the grade and age of the student. Section 2.  The Florida Healthy Adolescent Act.  (1)   This section may be cited as the  Florida Healthy Adolescent Act.  (2)   Each public school that directly or indirectly receives state funding and that provides information, offers programs, or contracts with third parties to provide information or offer programs regarding human sexuality, including family planning, pregnancy, or sexually transmitted infection prevention, including the prevention of HIV and AIDS, shall provide comprehensive, medically accurate, and factual information that is developmentally and age appropriate. (3)   As used in this section, the term: (a)    Comprehensive information  means information that: 1.   Helps young people gain knowledge about the physical, biological, and hormonal changes of adolescence and subsequent stages of human maturation; 2.   Develops the knowledge and skills necessary to protect young people with respect to their sexual and reproductive health and to promote an understanding of sexuality as a normal part of human development; 3.   Helps young people gain knowledge about responsible decisionmaking; 4.   Is culturally competent and appropriate for use with young people of any race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ethnic or cultural background; 5.   Develops healthy attitudes and behaviors concerning growth, development, and body image; 6.   Encourages young people to practice healthy life skills, including negotiation and refusal skills, to assist in overcoming peer pressure and use effective decisionmaking skills to avoid high-risk activities; 7.   Promotes self-esteem and positive interpersonal skills, focusing on skills needed to develop healthy relationships and interactions, and provides young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to have healthy, positive, and safe relationships and behaviors; and 8.   Includes medically accurate information about all methods of contraception and each method s effectiveness rate, including, but not limited to, abstinence. (b)    Developmentally and age appropriate  means suitable for particular ages or age groups of children and adolescents based on the developing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacity typical for that age or age group. (c)    Factual information  includes, but is not limited to, medical, psychiatric, psychological, empirical, and statistical statements. (d)    Medically accurate information  means information relevant to informed decisionmaking which is based on scientific evidence, consistent with generally recognized scientific theory, conducted under accepted scientific methods, published in peer-reviewed journals, and recognized as accurate, objective, and complete by mainstream professional organizations, including, but not limited to, the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Public Health Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics; government agencies, including the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health; and scientific advisory groups, including the Institute of Medicine and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The deliberate withholding of information needed to protect the life and health of an individual is considered medically inaccurate. (4)(a)   Each public school that provides information, offers programs, or contracts with a third party to provide information or offer programs regarding human sexuality under this section shall make the curriculum available to a parent or guardian upon request. (b)   A student may be excused from the portion of a program that provides information relating to human sexuality pursuant to this section upon written request by the student s parent or guardian. A student excused from that portion of the program may not be subject to disciplinary action, academic penalty, or any other form of punishment for being excused. (5)(a)   The parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a public school subject to the requirements of subsection (2) may file a complaint with the district school superintendent if the parent or guardian believes that the public school is not in compliance with such requirements. Within days after receipt of a complaint, the district school superintendent shall take any warranted corrective action and provide the complainant and the school principal with written notice of the corrective action, if any, that was taken. (b)   A parent or guardian who is not satisfied with the district school superintendent s response to the filed complaint may file an appeal with the district school board within days after receiving the district school superintendent s written notice of the corrective action, if any, that was taken or, if written notice was not timely provided under paragraph (a), within days after the complaint was filed with the district school superintendent. Within days after receipt of an appeal under this paragraph, the district school board shall take any warranted corrective action and provide the appellant and the district school superintendent with a written notice of the corrective action, if any, that was taken. (c)   A parent or guardian who is not satisfied with the district school board s response to such an appeal may file an appeal with the Commissioner of Education within days after receiving the district school board s written notice of the corrective action, if any, that was taken or, if written notice was not timely provided under paragraph (b), within days after the appeal was filed with the district school board. The commissioner shall investigate the claim and make a finding regarding the public school s compliance with subsection (2). Upon a finding of substantial noncompliance, the commissioner shall take corrective action, including, but not limited to, notifying the parent or guardian of each student enrolled in the public school that the public school is in violation of state law. Section 3.  If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect the remaining provisions or applications of the act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are declared severable. Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.