SB2775

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2775
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that current sex education standards within secondary schools in the State of Hawaii are not providing students with the knowledge and tools necessary to prevent unplanned pregnancies and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. Hawaii now ranks twelfth among the fifty states in the number of teen pregnancies, and tenth in incidence of Chlamydia, a sexually-transmitted disease with the potential to cause sterility. The legislature further finds that sex education standards are unequal throughout the State: classes are not offered in all public schools, and not all public schools require them for graduation. The absence of a sex education program disadvantages Hawaii teenagers, as they are not uniformly educated on the specific risks involved in sexual activity that could result in adverse, even tragic, consequences. Although some schools do offer sex education, the current abstinence-only structure offered in Hawaii schools may not be achieving desired results of unplanned pregnancy and disease prevention. A study published in the Review of General Psychology showed that seventy per cent of young women and eighty per cent of young men approved of premarital sex. Another study by Columbia and Yale University professors revealed that abstinence-only sex education programs fail to have a statistically significant effect on the transmission rate of sexually-transmitted diseases or the rate of premarital sexual activity. The Guttmacher Institute produced a study that reported that sex education programs that encompass methods to engage in safer sex and reduce risks of unplanned pregnancies and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV, have resulted in lower unplanned pregnancy rates and transmission rates of sexually-transmitted diseases without increasing the rate of sexual initiation.

For the foregoing reasons, a broader, more comprehensive sex education program is needed to provide secondary school students with the proper knowledge and tools to prevent unplanned teen pregnancies and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.

The purpose of this Act is to enact one of the recommendations from the thirty-fifth secondary student conference that was held on Oahu between November 28 and 30, 2007. The conference recommended that the Hawaii board of education consider changing its policy of abstinence-only sex education in the secondary schools of Hawaii to adopt a comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education program that is mandatory for graduation, and includes in its curriculum the concepts of abstinence and contraception.

SECTION 2. Chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§302A‑ Board of education; sex education program. The board shall adopt a comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education program that is mandatory for graduation from all public secondary schools, and includes in its curriculum the concepts of abstinence, contraception, and sexually-transmitted disease prevention. The board and the department shall adopt rules in accordance with chapter 91 as necessary to carry out this section."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________