BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 2016 (Campos) - Pupil Instruction: Sexual Abuse and Sexual
Assault
Amended: July 2, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 4-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2016 requires the State Board of Education
(SBE), based upon the recommendations of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI), to consider including age-appropriate
content in grades kindergarten-12 in sexual abuse and sexual
assault awareness and prevention in the next revision of the
health content standards. This bill would also require the SBE,
based upon recommendations by the Instructional Quality
Commission (IQC) to consider including those K-12 content
standards in sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and
prevention, in the health framework for when next revised.
This bill would authorize school districts, county offices of
education, and charter schools to provide age-appropriate
instruction, pursuant to the K-12 content standards adopted by
the state board in sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and
prevention, as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Standards development/revision: Potentially significant
costs to the California Department of Education (CDE),
likely $60,000 - $100,000 (General Fund), to develop and
include age-appropriate K-12 content in sexual abuse and
sexual assault awareness and prevention in the health
content standards, as specified.
Frameworks: Substantial cost pressure to update the health
frameworks to include the new content standards, and
information on counseling resources, as specified.
Background: Existing law requires school districts to ensure
that all students in grades 7-12 receive HIV/AIDS prevention
education, as specified, from instructors trained in the
appropriate courses. Each student must receive this instruction
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at least once in middle school and at least once in high school.
(Education Code § 51934)
Existing law authorizes school districts to provide
comprehensive sexual health education, as specified, consisting
of age-appropriate instruction, in any grade, using instructors
trained in the appropriate courses. (EC § 51933)
Parents have the right to excuse their child from all, or part,
of comprehensive sexual health education, HIV/AIDS prevention
education, and assessment related to that education. School
districts must notify the parent of each student about
instruction in sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention and
research on student health behaviors and risks planned for the
coming school year. (EC § 51938)
The health framework was last adopted in 2003, and was in the
process of being revised when the processes for reviewing
frameworks and adopting instructional materials were suspended
in July 2009, due to budget constraints. Adoption of the revised
health framework was projected for March 2011. However, the SBE
is specifically prohibited from reviewing frameworks and
adopting instructional materials until the 2015-16 school year,
with some specifically authorized exceptions. (Education Code §
60200.7, § 60200.8, and § 60200.9)
The role of the IQC is to recommend curriculum frameworks to the
SBE, develop criteria for evaluating instructional materials,
study, evaluate and recommend to the SBE instructional materials
for adoption, and make recommendations to the SBE regarding the
use of frameworks and model curriculum and alignment with the
academic content standards. (EC § 60204)
Proposed Law: This bill requires the SBE, based upon the
recommendations of the SPI, to consider including
age-appropriate content for grades K-12, inclusive, in sexual
abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention in the next
revision of the health content standards. This bill would also
require the SBE, based upon IQC recommendations, to consider
including those K-12 content standards in sexual abuse and
sexual assault awareness and prevention, in the health framework
for when next revised.
Related Legislation: SB 1165 (Mitchell) requires the IQC to
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consider including a distinct category on sexual abuse and sex
trafficking prevention education in the next revision of the
health framework. SB 1165 is pending in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the SPI to make
recommendations to the SBE relative to the inclusion of content
on sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness and prevention in
the next revision of the health content standards. In order to
make that recommendation, the CDE would need to:
1) Review the current health education content standards that
address sexual abuse and sexual assault awareness. The
existing standards are for kindergarten, grade 1, grade 4,
and the grade spans 7-8 and 9-12. If the standards in those
grades were considered sufficient, then the CDE might only
need to develop new standards for grade 2, grade 3, grade 5,
and grade 6. However, if they were found to be insufficient,
or if developing new standards for some grades was seen to
affect the standards in other grades, all K-12 standards
might need to be developed as a group, and these activities
would be required for every grade.
2) Review research-based literature on sexual abuse and sexual
assault awareness and prevention education.
3) Draft proposed new standards that are based on that
literature, and that keep with the coherence of the
standards for other health topics.
4) Convene a standards-writing advisory panel to edit and
finalize the new standards.
Those four activities will drive significant new workload for
the CDE. The department estimates that it would need .3 PY, at a
cost of $46,000, as well as a contracted standards writer to
write the revision. The contract cost would be a minimum of
$20,000 to write 4 grades of standards; if the revisions are
more extensive, the contract will be more expensive.
The CDE will incur additional costs to include "information on
available counseling and resources for children who are sexually
abused" in the content standards and health frameworks.
Counseling resources are typically local. The CDE would have to
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research available local resources throughout the state and vet
them for legitimacy and appropriateness, in order to include
them in the health content standards and frameworks.