BOSTON (SHNS) – Senators will vote again next week on a bill that would update the state's sex education guidelines, which the House has already approved four times without support.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee studied the so-called Healthy Youth Act (S268) Thursday morning, setting the stage for its implementation scheduled for next week's first formal session in four weeks.
The bill would update Massachusetts' sexual health law and create guidelines for districts that choose sex education to include human anatomy. How to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, AIDS, and unwanted pregnancies. Effective use of contraceptives. How to safely discuss sex in a relationship. Skills to identify and prevent sexual and relationship violence. Age-appropriate affirmative education about gender identity and sexual orientation.
“As I've said on the floor the last four times, we know if students are talking about these issues in the classroom,” said Sen. Sal DiDomenico, the Senate bill's lead sponsor. “If you don't learn the medically accurate information taught in our classrooms, you're getting bad information that can have long-term consequences.”
The Senate has voted in favor of education framework reform four times in the past decade, but House Democrats have never taken it up. On the House side, Rep. Jim O'Day has supported the bill for the past 10 years.
O'Day appeared as a guest on former Senate President Harriet Chandler's local cable show last month and said, “When I started this bill, the last time a healthy youth and sex education framework was addressed was in 1999.'' '' he said. “So we are now in 2024, where, at least for now, we have good, solid, balanced, medically accurate, age-appropriate, evidence-based data. It is being [bill] …And this is not a mandate of this bill. We now have a framework that says if we're going to teach health education or sex education, it needs to be consistent with what's being taught in Framingham and Provincetown and Pittsfield and Worcester. ”
“It's a disgrace,” Chandler, a supporter of the bill, said when O'Day first raised the issue.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Commission independently updated its sexual health education standards last year to reflect some of the requirements of the so-called Healthy Youth Act after Gov. Maura Healey supported the controversial bill. .
Under the school board's new physical education and sex education guidelines, students will receive sex and health education aimed at being more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community, focusing on bodily autonomy, mental and emotional health, and dating. They will teach about safety, nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases and consent.
Neither the guidelines nor DiDomenico and O'Day's bill change Massachusetts law that allows school districts to opt-in to teaching sex education. The bill introduced in the Senate would also require parents to receive a letter at the beginning of the school year detailing the sex education curriculum and the opportunity to opt their child out.
Asked by the news service how the bill differs from the latest framework adopted by the school board, DiDomenico said passing the Healthy Youth Act would codify the new guidelines.
The bill would require data on what is taught in schools to be collected and reported to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education every two years. Additionally, since it took 24 years to update the guidelines, states are also required to review the framework every 10 years.
“Finally, this framework is a suggestion for schools. Healthy Youth is an actual curriculum. That's why we've made the framework so much more flexible. In theory, 'abstinence only' could be used in this framework. I can continue to teach,” DiDomenico said. “Under this bill, sex education would also talk about consent, LGBTQ language, and healthy relationships. Unlike the proposal, it would be more detailed.”
The senator added that 17 states require sex education to be medically accurate and 26 states require it to be age-appropriate. Massachusetts is not included on either of those lists.
“I think that's a pretty convincing argument. Many states across the country recognize the value of this education,” Didaineco said. “This bill will give students the information they need to protect their health, build respectful relationships, and build a better future. In my opinion, it's as important as math, science, and English. It is important.”
