Bill Text: HI SCR29 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Board of Education Sexual Health Education Requirements

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-02-25 - Referred to EDU, WAM. [SCR29 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2015-SCR29-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	29
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

Encouraging the Board of Education to amend its policies to require health education in public middle schools and clarify sexual health education requirements and encouraging the board of education and department of education to rescind a ban on condom distribution for all public school students.

 

 

     WHEREAS, the mission of the Board of Education is to promote excellence and equity in Hawaii's public schools and enable all students to meet their own unique and varied potentials; and

 

     WHEREAS, section 321-11.1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires state-funded sexuality health education to be medically accurate and age appropriate and include education on abstinence, contraception, and methods of disease and pregnancy prevention; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's teen pregnancy rate is tenth highest among the states; and

 

     WHEREAS, teen childbearing costs Hawaii taxpayers $32,000,000 per year, 71 percent of which are state and local costs; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has historically high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, such as chlamydia; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii's high school students report the lowest percentage of condom use of any state in the nation; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hawaii Adolescent Reproductive Health Survey (2012), a survey on community attitudes toward sexual health education in Hawaii, concluded that 97 percent of survey participants said that it was important or very important to have sexual health education as part of the school curriculum; and

 

     WHEREAS, education is the key to reducing the number of cases of sexually transmitted disease and the number of teen pregnancies and to building stronger families and a healthier future for Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, it is the intent of this body to ensure that the youth of Hawaii have the skills and tools necessary to make healthy and responsible decisions with regard to their sexual and reproductive health, through programs in the public school system or through other means; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Board of Education is encouraged to adopt Policy 102.9 to require health education for middle school students and Policy 103.5 to clarify sexual health education requirements, including that parents can opt their children out of sexual health programs; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Education and the Department of Education are encouraged to rescind proposed Policy 103.8, which bans condom distribution on school campuses and at school events and activities; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and Superintendent of Education.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Board of Education Sexual Health Education Requirements