Planned Parenthood Of IL Supports Bill For K-12 Health Education

ACROSS ILLINOIS — Planned Parenthood of Illinois announced Wednesday its support for legislation which would require comprehensive, inclusive and age-appropriate personal health and safety education for K-12 public schools in Illinois. According to a news release from PPIL, the Responsible Education for Adolescent and Children’s Health (REACH) Act would be phased in, and allow schools adequate time and resources to implement quality programs. School districts will maintain control by choosing the curriculum and number of minutes for teaching. Under the bill, parents will also maintain the right to remove their child from sex education classes, the news release added.

“PPIL supports the REACH Act because students who don’t receive age-appropriate, comprehensive, and inclusive sexual health education are at risk of harm,” said PPIL President and CEO Jennifer Welch, in the news release. “Research has shown that the long-term impacts of comprehensive sexual education include lower sexually transmitted infection and pregnancy rate. Plus the REACH Act provides guidance for youth of all ages to understand and develop healthy relationships which I think we can agree is a wonderful goal.”

Currently, 29 states mandate sex education, according to PPIL. Illinois is not one of those 29.

Co-sponsors of the bill are Senator Ram Villivalam (D-8th District) and Rep. Kathleen Willis (D-77th District).

“There is urgency to act now to ensure all students in Illinois receive the age appropriate education necessary to be safe and healthy," Villivalam said, in the news release. "Senate Bill 2762 will do just that.”

According to PPIL, Willis emphasized students in grades 6 through 12 when saying that youth across the state want information about "healthy relationships, abuse and violence prevention, and other critical issues they face in their daily lives.”

“When schools fail to offer this kind of education, their students are denied the opportunity to learn critical information to lead healthy, safe lives,” Willis said, in the news release.

Mike Ziri, Director of Public Policy at Equality Illinois, the state’s civil rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Illinoisans, also voiced support for the bill.

“The REACH Act is the result of months of outreach and engagement with partners across the state, including with LGBTQ students in Carbondale and Springfield and more than 30 community organizations," Ziri said, in the news release. "Advocates want Illinois to act now to support all students in all parts of the state, and the REACH Act does that.”

PPIL also recognized Tre Graham, an advocate for the REACH Act and youth representative of the Rainbow Café LGBTQ Youth Center in Carbondale. As a young queer person, Graham "knows that my schools could have done better when it came to teaching about sexual health, personal safety, and how to build healthy relationships." PPIL added that while talking to peers, Graham also heard about how many LGBTQ students feel left out or aren’t receiving any instruction at all, which in turn leaves them to figure things out on their own.

The REACH ACT is also supported by dozens of organizations across Illinois, according to PPIL, which also requires sex education to "address experiences and needs of all youth in the school, including pupils with disabilities; to not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, nation origin, disability, religion, gender expression, gender identity, or sexual orientation," according to the news release.

The bill also allows instructors to answer questions initiated by a student both related to and consistent with the course's material.

According to the news release, the REACH Act outlines age-appropriate curriculum as:

• Grades K-2: Instruction focuses on personal safety, identifying trusted adults who children can rely on for guidance and support, and respecting others.
• Grades 3-5: Instruction continues to focus on personal safety and healthy relationships, discusses bullying, harassment and abuse and covers topics such as anatomy, puberty, hygiene, body image, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
• Grades 6-12: Instruction builds on prior instruction about healthy relationships by covering issues like consent, sexual harassment, abuse, and interpersonal violence, provides additional information on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and covers the benefits of abstinence, behavioral changes, barrier methods like condoms, medication, contraception and sexually transmitted infection prevention measures.

More information: ppil.org