Title: An act relating to family and consumer science education.

Brief Description: Providing for family and consumer science education.

Sponsors: By House Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Quall, Curtis, Anderson, Talcott, Eickmeyer, Kirby, Haigh, DeBolt, Dunshee, McDonald, Morrell, Buri, Miloscia, Rodne, Lovick, O'Brien, Shabro, P. Sullivan, Wood, Sells, Chase, Ormsby and Kilmer).

Brief History:

Education: 1/27/05, 2/24/05 [DPS].

Floor Activity:

Passed House: 3/11/o5, 88-4.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Majority Report: The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass. Signed by 11 members: Representatives Quall, Chair; P. Sullivan, Vice Chair; Talcott, Ranking Minority Member; Anderson, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Curtis, Haigh, Hunter, McDermott, Santos, Shabro and Tom.

Staff: Sydney Forrester (786-7120).

Background:

In determining its educational programs and adopting curricula, a school district must ensure its course offerings include content meeting or exceeding: (1) the state's basic education goals; (2) the high school graduation requirements established by the State Board of Education (SBE); and (3) the minimum college entrance requirements established by the state's four-year institutions of higher education. Districts also must offer a program for high school students who plan to pursue career or work opportunities other than entering a four-year college after graduation.

Rules adopted by the SBE require school districts to offer high school students the opportunity to take at least one course in the Home and Family Life domain. The family and consumer science frameworks developed by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) include instruction and study in the areas of family and its impact on individuals and society; interpersonal relationships; parenting roles and responsibilities; and the integration of multiple life roles and responsibilities in family, work, and community settings. Home and Family Life courses are intended generally to prepare students for family life, work life, and careers.

Summary of Engrossed Substitute Bill:

School districts are encouraged to adopt a family preservation education curriculum and offer a unit in family preservation education to high school students. School districts may adopt the model curriculum or may develop a curriculum with input from the community. The OSPI must adopt a model curriculum for family preservation education.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For: (Original bill) We tend to focus on a narrow view of academic achievement. But we need to remember that school is about preparing students for life. Life is about relationships, and successful relationships can also involve knowledge and skills that ought to be taught. In fact, these skills can make the difference between a meaningful happy life or a life of failure and frustration. These skills also are about the legacy we leave of well adjusted children and harmonious communities. All students need to learn how to live, and to live fully we need to learn at the deepest level how to nurture people around us and those closest to us.

Sometimes in our educational programs we tend to major on the minor and minor on the major. Some of the things in this bill are major items that are many times left neglected. This bill is about providing optional education so students will have the opportunity to arm themselves with vital life skills to govern their private affairs more effectively. Effective relationship skills are used everywhere in life. Strong marital relationships result in stronger children, families, and communities and place less of a fiscal burden on the state. Over half the divorces in Washington involve families with children.

A study in Florida found that the cost of divorce to that state was over $2.3 billion, so it's easy to see that divorce can be costly to a state. Students already get instruction regarding AIDS and domestic violence. Why not provide a preventative optional class for high school students? This type of instruction should be considered the fourth R.

From the point of view of students, this will help us learn life skills that are just as important as the academic skills we learn. Family and consumer science classes provide multi-faceted opportunities for students to learn and practice important life skills. Numerous other states have a requirement for family and relationship education courses. The website of the OSPI has frameworks and essential academic learning requirements for family and consumer sciences that cover the topics in this bill. Many school districts are offering the family and consumer science courses teaching the topics included in this bill. This bill will help promote family as the basic unit of society.

Testimony Against: None.

Persons Testifying: (Original bill) Representative Quall, prime sponsor; Larry Kvamme, independent volunteer; Monica Millburn and Sari Schindler, Family Career and Community Leaders of America; Bruce McBurney, Central Kitsap School District; and Roxanne Trees, Seattle Public Schools.

Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.