California Healthy Youth Act
Beginning with the 2018-19 school year, school districts are mandated to provide new comprehensive sexual health education and HIV/AIDS prevention training at least twice to all students over the course of grades 7-12; once in middle school and once in high school, in accordance with the 2016 CA Healthy Youth Act (CHYA). The law applies to Special Education students as well.
For additional information regarding the CHYA, please access the California Department of Education website: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/se/
Prior to the new law, school districts were only required to provide HIV/AIDS prevention education once in middle school and once in high school. With the CHYA, the addition of comprehensive sexual health education aims to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as well as assist students with developing interpersonal skills, responsible behavior, and goal setting. The law emphasizes decision-making and refusal skills, identifying healthy and unhealthy relationships, and communicating with trusted adults about sexual health.
As a condition of the law, secondary schools must provide information to students regarding safe and legal access to sexual health services, supports for LGBTQ-inclusive environments, and additional interventions for schools with higher percentages of students at risk for HIV/STDs and unplanned pregnancies. We are working with our community partner the Beach Cities Health District in identifying resources for our students.
The RBUSD evaluated, recommended, and Board adopted Positive Prevention Plus as the District’s grades 7-12 comprehensive sexual health education and HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum in October 2018. Please see the below link to the Positive Prevention Plus curriculum:
https://www.positivepreventionplus.com/
In evaluating a number of CHYA curriculum options and recommending Positive Prevention Plus, the RBUSD convened a District advisory committee composed of the following committee participants:
- Six secondary school science and special education teachers
- Three parents of secondary school children
- Three secondary school administrators
- Executive Director, Educational Services
- Director of Youth Services, Beach Cities Health District
- Health Coordinator, Los Angeles County Office of Education
The California Healthy Youth Act was presented to the RBUSD Board of Education on Tuesday, September 11, 2018. Please see below for the presentation.
If you have questions, please contact the District representative listed below.
District Contact:
Lisa Veal
Executive Director, Educational Services
310.937.1223