Comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education.

The California Healthy Youth Act requires school districts, defined to include county boards of education, county superintendents of schools, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and, commencing with the 2019–20 school year, charter schools, to ensure that all pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, receive comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education, as specified. The act authorizes a school district to provide that education earlier than grade 7 with age-appropriate and medically accurate information. The act gives the parent or guardian of a pupil the right to excuse their child from all or part of that education through a passive consent ("opt-out") process and prohibits a school district from requiring active parental consent ("opt-in") for that education. The act requires each school district to notify parents and guardians of pupils about its plan to provide sexual health education and HIV prevention instruction for the upcoming school year and to inform them, among other things, that the parent or guardian has the right to excuse their child from comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education and that in order to excuse their child they must state their request in writing to the school district. This bill instead would authorize a school district to require active parental consent ("opt-in") with a signature for any sexual health education and HIV prevention education for a pupil in a grade lower than grade 7. The bill would make conforming changes to notification requirements to parents and guardians.