SB 673

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The California Healthy Youth Act requires school districts, defined to include county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, charter schools, to ensure that all pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education, as specified. The act authorizes a school district to provide that education earlier than grade 7 with age-appropriate and medically accurate information. The act provides that the parent or guardian of a pupil has the right to excuse their child from all or part of that education through a passive consent ("opt-out") process and prohibits a school district from requiring active parental consent ("opt-in") for that education. This bill would require, for a pupil in a grade lower than grade 7, an active parental consent ("opt-in") with a signature for sexual health education and HIV prevention education. The act requires each school district to notify parents and guardians about its plan to provide sexual health education and HIV prevention instruction for the upcoming school year and to inform them, among other things, that written and audiovisual educational materials used in this instruction are available for inspection This bill would require a school district to make those materials available for inspection before the date of instruction on the school district's internet website and to translate those materials, as prescribed. By imposing additional duties on school districts, county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, and charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.