H-1247.1                  _______________________________________________

                                                      HOUSE BILL 1724

                              _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1993 Regular Session

By Representatives Kremen, Morris, Quall, Chandler, Rayburn, Springer, Edmondson, Mastin, Kessler, Finkbeiner, Grant, Dorn, Basich, Zellinsky, Ludwig, Campbell, Lemmon, Brough, Tate, Casada, Wood, Foreman, Holm, Roland, Fuhrman, Stevens, Sheahan, Schoesler, Long and Lisk

Read first time 02/05/93.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Requiring the superintendent of public instruction to develop and make available instructional material on sexual abstinence.

          AN ACT Relating to sexual abstinence instructional material; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that the rate of teenage pregnancy has reached alarming levels.  During the past decade, the number of sexually active teenagers has increased by two-thirds.  The legislature further finds that having a child while a teenager makes obtaining a quality education extremely difficult, and most often leads to school failure for the mother and future personal and economic hardship for both the mother and the child.  Also, the lives of sexually active adolescents are at risk due to the increasing number of young people infected with the HIV virus.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  The superintendent of public instruction, with the advice and assistance of the advisory committee established in section 3 of this act, shall develop and make available to school districts instructional material that emphasizes and encourages teenage sexual abstinence.  The primary objective of the instructional material shall be to help adolescents develop skills to resist social and peer pressure to become sexually active.  It shall be designed so that it will be used in health education classes.  A summary of the instructional material, with information regarding availability, shall be distributed to all school districts by October 1, 1994.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  The superintendent of public instruction shall establish an advisory committee to assist the department in the development of the instructional material required in section 2 of this act.  The committee shall include, but not be limited to, parents and teachers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  This act shall expire October 1, 1994.

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