AB 329 Information/Overview
What is the CA Healthy Youth Act ( AB 329) pertaining to middle and high school?
The California Healthy Youth Act (AB 329), which took effect January 1, 2016, requires school districts to provide students with comprehensive sexual health and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education at least once in middle school and once in high school. For our 7th & 9th grade students, San Jacinto Unified science teachers will use Positive Prevention Plus, a state-approved curriculum to teach comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention. The law requires that instruction and materials encourage students to communicate with parents, guardians, or other trusted adults about human sexuality.
What is required for all comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education?
All instruction must be age‐appropriate, medically accurate, and appropriate for students with disabilities, students who are English language learners, and for students of all races, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations. Instruction may not promote religious doctrine. Instruction must affirmatively recognize different sexual orientations, and be inclusive of same‐sex relationships when providing examples of couples or relationships. It must also teach about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes. Comprehensive sexual health education must encourage students to communicate with their parents or other trusted adults, and must provide students with the knowledge and skills to develop healthy relationships and make healthy decisions about sexuality.
What additional content is required in grades 7-12?
Beginning in grade 7, instruction must include information about the safety and effectiveness of all FDA‐approved methods of preventing pregnancy and transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (including condoms, contraceptives, and antiretroviral treatment) and abstinence. It must also include information about HIV, pregnancy, sexual harassment, sexual assault, healthy relationships, and sex trafficking, as well as local resources for accessing care and students’ rights to access care.
What determines whether the facts are medically accurate?
Instruction is medically accurate if it is verified or supported by proper scientific research, published in peer-reviewed journals as appropriate, and recognized as accurate and objective by agencies with expertise in the field, such as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
What does the law say about parent/guardian notification and consent for instruction?
Parents/guardians must be notified that their student will receive sexual health and HIV prevention education and be have the right to view the curriculum prior to the first day of instruction. Parents or guardians may remove their student from the instruction by submitting an opt out form.
Parents Right To Opt Out of Instruction
Parents have the right to opt their students out of instruction. Students will receive an informational letter with
(1) dates to preview the curriculum and (2) the opt-out form from their school site. Signed forms must be returned to the student's teacher by the indicated deadline. For more information, please see the general opt out letter link located at the upper right of this page, and call your student(s) school site.
Parent Preview of Positive Prevention Plus
Parents/guardians have the right to preview the curriculum before instruction begins. The links for both middle and high school curriculum review can be found on this page to the right. You can view your student(s) school's first day of instruction timeline below. For more information about Positive Prevention Plus, please visit their website.
Instruction Timeline
Initial parent notifications go out some time in March. Each site will be sending out information about opting your student out of instruction, as well as curriculum review. The first day of instruction for each site will be posted below.
Additional Information
For more information about the California Healthy Youth Act (AB 329), please visit the California Department of Education website at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/se/
Quick Links
Opt Out Letters
Parent Letter
Curriculum Review - Middle School
Curriculum Review - High School
If you need assistance to review the curriculum in Spanish, you may contact your student's school or Educational Services at (951) 929-7700 ext. 4263.
Si necesita asistencia en español para repasar el plan de estudio, puede llamar a la escuela de su estudiante o a la oficina de Servicios Educativos al (951) 929-7700 ext. 4263.