State law establishes instructional and other requirements related to identifying and preventing sexual abuse and violence involving students. Examples of those requirements are described below.
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is designated as the lead agency charged with assisting the Department of Children, Youth, and Families and school districts in establishing a coordinated program for the prevention of sexual abuse, child abuse, and neglect of students in kindergarten through grade 12. The OSPI is required to collect and disseminate to school districts information on and curricula for the program.
The OSPI is also required to adopt rules addressing the prevention of sexual abuse and child abuse of students in kindergarten through grade 12 for purposes of a public school curricula. Additionally, the OSPI has adopted a prevention and intervention resource guide for educators, and others, titled Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Trafficking of Children and Youth.
At the local level, school districts are required to adopt plans for the recognition, initial screening, and response to emotional or behavioral distress in students, including, but not limited to, indicators of possible substance abuse, violence, youth suicide, and sexual abuse. School districts must provide the plan to all district staff each year.
Mandatory comprehensive sexual health education for students in grades 4 through 12 must include information about specified issues and subjects, including:
Beginning no later than the 2025-26 school year, school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal education compact schools must offer instruction in sex trafficking awareness and prevention at least once to each student, with the instruction offered in grades 7 through 12. The instruction, at the discretion of the school or school district, may be integrated into a relevant course or a course may be repurposed to include the instruction.
Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, on or before June 30, 2024, the OSPI must review curricula related to the awareness and prevention of sex trafficking.
To the extent practicable, the OSPI must make available in a library of openly licensed courseware curricular resources related to the awareness and prevention of sex trafficking that include:
The Child Sexual Abuse and Sex Trafficking Prevention and Identification Public-Private Partnership Account (Account) is created in the custody of the State Treasurer. All receipts from gifts, grants, or endowments from public or private sources, federal funds, and any appropriations made by the Legislature or other sources must be deposited into the Account.
Expenditures from the Account may be used only for curriculum and professional development to support instruction on child sexual abuse and sex trafficking prevention and identification. Only the Superintending of Public Instruction (SPI) or the SPI's designee may authorize expenditures from the Account.
The amended bill changes the engrossed bill by:
(In support) Many pregnant teens are victims of exploitation and sexual abuse. South King County has a high number of trafficked individuals, in part because of its proximity to nearby ports. Sex trafficking is not a local or state problem, it is a global one.
This bill is the result of six years of effort. Stakeholders recommend three to four lessons for students about trafficking, with students learning about the issues factually and without bias. Support exists for having students become change-makers by hearing the truth about trafficking. Statewide implementation of a curriculum is underway, and the course will be piloted in three school districts. The course should not be considered a burden, but rather as a few lessons that could change lives.
(Opposed) The statistics provided in this bill are terrifying. Perhaps there should be more time and effort spent training law enforcement and prosecutors. Perhaps the training required by the bill should be directed to parents. Warning and teaching students about sex trafficking is a responsibility of the parents, not the schools.