House Bill 1091

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-13-171, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE EACH LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD TO ADOPT A PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY CURRICULUM THAT INCLUDES COMPONENTS ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BY JUNE 30, 2012; TO REQUIRE THE STATE DEPARTMENT TO ESTABLISH A PROTOCOL TO BE USED BY DISTRICTS TO PROVIDE CONTINUITY IN TEACHING THE CURRICULUM; TO PROVIDE THAT THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH COMPONENT MAY BE EXPANDED BEYOND THE INSTRUCTION FOR ABSTINENCE-BASED EDUCATION WITHIN THE PROTOCOL BY THE DEPARTMENT; TO DEFINE ABSTINENCE-BASED EDUCATION; TO REMOVE THE AUTHORITY GIVEN TO LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS TO VOTE IN FAVOR OF ELIMINATING INSTRUCTION ON ABSTINENCE; TO PROHIBIT ANY TEACHING THAT ABORTION CAN BE USED TO PREVENT THE BIRTH OF A BABY; TO PROVIDE FOR THE REPEAL OF THIS SECTION ON JULY 1, 2015; TO AMEND SECTION 2, CHAPTER 507, LAWS OF 2009, TO REVISE THE DUTIES OF THE TEEN PREGNANCY TASK FORCE AND TO EXTEND THE DATE OF THE REPEAL ON THE TASK FORCE TO JULY 1, 2015; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 37-13-171, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-13-171. (1) The local school board of every public school district shall adopt a policy to implement a "Personal Responsibility" curriculum before June 30, 2012. The Personal Responsibility curriculum should be evidence based and should focus on strategies designed to improve health knowledge and develop life skills that are conducive to improved individual and community health. Each Personal Responsibility curriculum adopted must include educational components on reproductive health. The State Department of Education shall establish a protocol to be used by districts to provide continuity in teaching the curriculum in a manner that is age, grade and developmentally appropriate. The curriculum must be implemented in each school, based on the availability of funds for such purposes through the State Department of Education, State Department of Health, Department of Human Services or any public or private source.

(2) Abstinence-based education shall be the state standard for any reproductive education taught in the public schools. However, a school board may choose to implement a reproductive health component into its Personal Responsibility curriculum which expands beyond the instruction given for abstinence-based education, within the protocol established by the State Department of Education. For purposes of this section, abstinence-based education includes any type of instruction or program which, at an appropriate age and grade:

(a) Teaches the social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining * * *, and the likely negative psychological and physical effects of not abstaining;

(b) Teaches the harmful consequences to the child, the child's parents and society that bearing children out of wedlock is likely to produce, including the health, educational, financial and other difficulties the child and his or her parents are likely to face, as well as the inappropriateness of the social and economic burden placed on others;

(c) Teaches that unwanted * * * advances are irresponsible and teaches how to reject * * * advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to * * * advances;

(d) Teaches that abstinence * * * before marriage, and fidelity within marriage, is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, venereal diseases and related health problems * * *;

(e) Teaches the current state law related to * * * forcible rape, statutory rape, paternity establishment, child support and homosexual activity; and

(f) Teaches that a mutually faithful, monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the only appropriate setting for reproductive activity.

(3) A program or instruction on reproductive health need not include every component listed in subsection (2) of this section for abstinence-based education. However, no program or instruction under an abstinence-based curriculum may include anything that contradicts the excluded components. In any school district approving a reproductive health component of education as part of its curriculum which expands beyond the instruction given for abstinence-based education, the curriculum must include every component listed under subsection (2) of this section which is age and grade appropriate, in addition to any other programmatic or instructional component. The State Department of Health, if requested, must provide guidance and resources to assist school districts with choosing an appropriate curriculum.

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(4) Local school districts, in their discretion, may host programs designed to teach parents how to discuss reproductive health with their children.

(5) There may be no effort to teach that abortion can be used to prevent the birth of a baby.

(6) This section shall stand repealed on July 1, 2015.

SECTION 2. Section 2, Chapter 507, Laws of 2009, is amended as follows:

Section 2. (1) There is created the Teen Pregnancy Monitoring Task Force to study and make recommendation to the Legislature on the implementation of a Personal Responsibility curriculum in local school districts and the coordination of services by certain state agencies to improve health knowledge and develop life skills that are conducive to improved individual and community health. The task force shall make an annual report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature beginning with the 2013 Regular Session.

(2) The task force shall be composed of the following sixteen (16) members:

(a) The Chairmen of the Senate and House Public Health and Welfare Committees, or their designees;

(b) The Chairmen of the Senate and House Education Committees, or their designees;

(d) One (1) member of the Senate appointed by the Lieutenant Governor;

(e) The Executive Director of the Department of Human Services, or his or her designee;

(f) The State Health Officer, or his or her designee;

(g) The State Superintendent of Public Education, or his or her designee;

(h) The Executive Director of the Division of Medicaid, or his or her designee;

(i) The Executive Director of the State Department of Mental Health, or his or her designee;

(j) The Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine, or his or her designee;

(k) Two (2) representatives of the private health or social services sector appointed by the Governor;

(l) One (1) representative of the private health or social services sector appointed by the Lieutenant Governor; and

(m) One (1) representative of the private health or social services sector appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(3) Appointments shall be made within thirty (30) days after the effective date of this act, and, within fifteen (15) days thereafter on a day to be designated jointly by the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor, the task force shall meet and organize by selecting from its membership a chairman and a vice chairman. The vice chairman shall also serve as secretary and shall be responsible for keeping all records of the task force. A majority of the members of the task force shall constitute a quorum. In the selection of its officers and the adoption of rules, resolutions and reports, an affirmative vote of a majority of the task force shall be required. All members shall be notified in writing of all meetings, the notices to be mailed at least fifteen (15) days before the date on which a meeting is to be held. If a vacancy occurs on the task force, the vacancy shall be filled in the manner that the original appointment was made.

(4) Members of the task force who are not legislators, state officials or state employees shall be compensated at the per diem rate authorized by Section 25-3-69 and shall be reimbursed in accordance with Section 25-3-41 for mileage and actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties. Legislative members of the task force shall be paid from the contingent expense funds of their respective houses in the same manner as provided for committee meetings when the Legislature is not in session. However, no per diem or expense for attending meetings of the task force may be paid to legislative members of the task force while the Legislature is in session. No task force member may incur per diem, travel or other expenses unless previously authorized by vote, at a meeting of the task force, which action shall be recorded in the official minutes of the meeting. Nonlegislative members shall be paid from any funds made available to the task force for that purpose.

(5) The task force shall use clerical and legal staff already employed by the Legislature and any other staff assistance made available to it by the Department of Health * * *. To effectuate the purposes of this section, any department, division, board, bureau, commission or agency of the state or of any political subdivision thereof shall, at the request of the chairman of the task force, provide to the task force such facilities, assistance and data as will enable the task force properly to carry out its duties.

(6) In order to carry out the functions and responsibilities necessary to study and make recommendations to the Legislature, the Teen Pregnancy Monitoring Task Force shall:

(a) Form task force subgroups based on specific areas of expertise;

(b) Review and consider coordinated services and plans and related studies done by or through existing state agencies and advisory, policy or research organizations to reduce teen pregnancy and provide the necessary prenatal and postnatal training to expectant teen parents;

(d) Consider efforts of stakeholder groups to comply with federal requirements for coordinated planning and service delivery; * * *

(e) Evaluate the implementation of a Personal Responsibility curriculum in local school districts throughout the state;

(f) Evaluate the effect of the Personal Responsibility curriculum adopted and implemented by a school district on teen pregnancy rates and dropout rates due to teen pregnancy on the local school district and statewide levels;

(g) Compare and analyze data in districts adopting and implementing a Personal Responsibility curriculum;

(h) Require the Department of Health to conduct a study of community programs available throughout the state, and the areas wherein they are located, which provide programs of instruction on sexual behavior and assistance to teen parents; and

(i) Work through the Department of Health * * * to cause any studies, assessments and analyses to be conducted as may be deemed necessary by the task force.

(7) This section shall stand repealed on July 1, 2015.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.