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2004 SESSION

043739212
HOUSE BILL NO. 1273
Offered January 16, 2004
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 22.1-207 and 22.1-207.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to instructional materials for health and family life education.
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Patrons-- Amundson, Baskerville, Brink, Ebbin, Moran, Sickles, Van Landingham and Watts
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Referred to Committee on Education
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 22.1-207 and 22.1-207.1 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 22.1-207. Physical and health education.

Physical and health education shall be emphasized throughout the public school curriculum by lessons, drills and physical exercises, and all pupils in the public elementary, middle, and high schools shall receive as part of the educational program such health instruction and physical training as shall be prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the State Board of Health. All instructional materials for such physical and health education shall be designed to provide medically and factually accurate and objective information.

§ 22.1-207.1. Family life education.

The Board of Education shall develop by December 1, 1987, standards of learning and curriculum guidelines for a comprehensive, sequential family life education curriculum in grades K through 12. Such curriculum guidelines shall include instruction as appropriate for the age of the student in family living and community relationships, abstinence education, the value of postponing sexual activity, the benefits of adoption as a positive choice in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, human sexuality, human reproduction, and the etiology, prevention and effects of sexually transmitted diseases.

All such instruction shall be designed to promote parental involvement, foster positive self concepts and provide mechanisms for coping with peer pressure and the stresses of modern living according to the students' developmental stages and abilities. The Board shall also establish requirements for appropriate training for teachers of family life education, which shall include training in instructional elements to support the various curriculum components.

All instructional materials for such curriculum shall be designed to provide medically and factually accurate and objective information.

By December 1, 1987, the Board of Education shall provide the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance an analysis of the state and local fiscal impact of implementing a mandatory statewide family life education program and a recommended apportionment of state and local funding for such programs if not otherwise determined by law.

For the purposes of this section, "abstinence education" means an educational or motivational component whichthat has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by teenagers' abstaining from sexual activity before marriage.