BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 329
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
329 (Weber)
As Amended April 13, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Education |6-1 |O'Donnell, Chávez, |Kim |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |12-5 |Gomez, Bonta, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Eggman, |Wagner |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Makes instruction in sexual health education mandatory,
revises human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education
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content, expands topics covered in sexual health education,
requires this instruction to be inclusive of different sexual
orientations, and clarifies parental consent policy.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Renames the Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Prevention Education Act as the
California Healthy Youth Act.
2)Adds to the intended purposes of the Act, to:
a) Promote understanding of sexuality as a normal part of
human development.
b) Provide students with integrated, comprehensive, accurate,
and unbiased sexual health and HIV prevention instruction.
c) Provide educators with clear tools and guidance to
accomplish that end.
d) Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary
to have healthy, positive, and safe relationships and
behaviors.
3)Replaces the term HIV/AIDS with "HIV and AIDS," and replaces
"sexually transmitted disease" with "sexually transmitted
infection" throughout.
4)Defines the qualifications of instructors to include knowledge
of "healthy relationships."
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5)Requires instruction under this act to:
a) Affirmatively recognize that people have different sexual
orientations and, when discussing or providing examples of
relationships and couples, shall be inclusive of same-sex
relationships.
b) Teach pupils about gender, gender expression, gender
identity, and explore the harm of negative gender
stereotypes.
6)Revises a requirement that instruction and materials encourage
students to communicate with their parents or guardians to also
encourage that students communicate with "other trusted adults,"
and that this instruction also provide students with the
knowledge and skills necessary to do so.
7)Revises a requirement that instruction and materials teach
respect for marriage to read: "prepare pupils to have and
maintain committed relationships such as marriage."
8)Requires that instruction and materials provide students with
knowledge and skills they need to form healthy relationships
that are based on mutual respect and affection, and are free
from violence, coercion, and intimidation.
9)Revises a requirement and makes it apply to all sexual health
education (currently in HIV/AIDS prevention education) that
instruction and materials provide students with "negotiation"
skills (in addition to refusal skills) to assist them in
overcoming peer pressure.
10)Requires that instruction on sexual health in grades 7-12 occur
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at least once during junior high school and once during high
school (in addition to HIV prevention education). This includes
the requirements in existing law for comprehensive sexual health
education and HIV/AIDS prevention education, while also
requiring as part of this instruction:
a) The effectiveness and safety, as one federal Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved method to prevent or reduce the
risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections, of the use of antiretroviral medication,
consistent with the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
b) The effectiveness and safety of reducing the risk of HIV
transmission as a result of injection drug use by decreasing
needle use and needle sharing.
c) The treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections, including how antiretroviral therapy can
dramatically prolong the lives of many people living with HIV
and reduce the likelihood of transmitting HIV to others.
d) The facts that successfully treated HIV-positive
individuals have a normal life expectancy, all people are at
some risk of contracting HIV, and the only way to know if one
is HIV-positive is to get tested.
e) Information on students' legal rights to access local
resources for sexual and reproductive health care such as
testing and medical care for HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention and care, as
well as local resources for assistance with sexual assault
and intimate partner violence.
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f) Information on pregnancy, including an objective
discussion of all legally available pregnancy outcomes,
including all of the following:
i) Parenting, adoption, and abortion.
ii) Information on the law on surrendering physical
custody of a minor child 72 hours of age or younger.
iii) The importance of prenatal care.
g) Information on sexual harassment, sexual assault,
adolescent relationship abuse, intimate partner violence, and
sex trafficking.
11)Expands, by increasing the topics taught in sexual health
education, the number of topics which may be taught to students
earlier than grade 7 in an age appropriate and medically
accurate manner.
12)Removes the requirements that HIV instruction:
a) Accurately reflect the recommendations of the United
States Surgeon General and the National Academy of Sciences.
b) Emphasize compassion for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
c) Emphasize monogamy and avoidance of multiple sexual
partners as among the most effective means of preventing HIV
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infection.
13)Requires that outside consultants and guest speakers have
knowledge of the most recent medically accurate research on the
relevant topics covered in their instruction.
14)Adds sexual health to the requirements for in-service training
for teachers of HIV prevention education.
15)Clarifies that active parental consent ("opt in") policies for
sexual health instruction and for research and evaluation tools
are prohibited.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Permits school districts to provide comprehensive sexual health
education, and places a number of requirements on districts
choosing to provide that instruction. Among, these
requirements, instruction must be age appropriate, medically
accurate and objective, teach respect for committed
relationships and marriage, encourage students to speak with
their parents or guardians about human sexuality, be appropriate
and accessible for use with students with disabilities, and be
appropriate for students of all races, genders, sexual
orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
2)Requires school districts to provide HIV/AIDS prevention
education, and specifies what is to be included in that
instruction. Requires in-service training of instructors
providing HIV/AIDS prevention education.
3)Permits instruction to be provided by outside consultants and
guest speakers at assemblies and requires that this instruction
conform to the requirements for school district instruction.
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4)States that a parent or guardian of a student has the right to
excuse their child from all or part of comprehensive sexual
health education, HIV/AIDS prevention education, and related
assessments, and requires that parents be notified of this
right.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Minor/absorbable costs to the California Department of Education
(CDE) to maintain and update CDE website and provide technical
assistance to local education agencies.
2)Unknown Proposition 98/General Fund state mandated costs for
school districts to provide integrated HIV and sexual health
instruction. Many districts providing HIV prevention education
under current law are using integrated instructional materials.
Actual costs would depend on the number of school districts that
would have to modify curriculum. There are approximately 963,430
students impacted by this bill. If one-quarter of those students
attend schools that would need to purchase new instructional
materials, the statewide cost for duplicating student materials
would be approximately $480,000 per year.
COMMENTS:
Purposes of this bill. The author explains that this bill is
intended to address five topics by:
1)Updating the HIV and AIDS prevention education to reflect
today's understanding of HIV and AIDS.
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2)Ensuring that students are receiving comprehensive and accurate
prevention information for HIV, other sexually transmitted
infections, and unintended pregnancy, as well as information
about local health resources.
3)Clarifying and bolstering existing requirements that instruction
and materials be appropriate for students of all sexual
orientations and genders.
4)Clarifying the existing passive consent policy for parental
consent.
5)Including new language relating to adolescent relationship abuse
and sex trafficking, and reinforcing a focus on healthy
attitudes, healthy behaviors, and healthy relationships.
Making comprehensive sexual health education mandatory. Current
law does not mandate sexual health education, but places
requirements on instruction that is voluntarily provided to
students. While this instruction is voluntary, research has shown
that nearly all (96%) school districts offer a program of sexual
health education. In contrast, HIV/AIDS prevention education has
been mandated since 1992. This bill proposes to combine sexual
health education and the HIV/AIDS prevention education statutes
into a single, mandatory program of instruction. Proponents of
this bill argue that this bill reflects the way that sexual health
and HIV prevention education is actually provided in schools - as
an integrated program of instruction. Research has found that 93%
teach the two topics as one class.
Compliance problems. A 2011 report from the University of
California, San Francisco, titled Uneven Progress: Sex Education
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in California Schools, found that since the last major reform in
this area there have been improvements in instruction, but that
there remain problems regarding school district compliance with
current law. Among the findings:
1)Twenty-five percent of districts discussed the required topic of
emergency contraception.
2)Fifty-eight percent of districts included required information
about contraception in middle and high school.
3)Twenty-five percent of districts omitted required HIV prevention
topics.
4)Sixteen percent of districts taught students that condoms are
not an effective way to prevent pregnancy and transmission of
STIs.
5)Nineteen percent of districts reported that birth control
methods are mentioned but that most of the instructional time
was spent on the benefits of abstinence.
6)Thirty percent of districts addressed sexual orientation.
7)Thirty-seven percent of districts did not provide required
teacher training.
8)Thirty-nine percent of districts failed to provide required
materials in languages other than English.
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9)Twenty-seven percent of districts failed to provide required
materials to make content accessible to students with
disabilities.
CDE changing its interpretation of parental consent law. Contrary
to significant Legislative history on this issue, the CDE has
advised school districts that the law permits them to adopt an
"opt in" policy regarding comprehensive sexual health instruction
(but not HIV/AIDS prevention education). The CDE has recently
informed staff that it is in the process of changing this
interpretation, and will be advising that "opt in" policies are
prohibited.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
0000713