State Fiscal Highlights
· No direct fiscal effect on the state.
Local Fiscal Highlights
· School districts, community schools, and STEM schools may incur costs to modify their health education curriculum to include HIV/AIDS prevention education. These costs may include the costs of training instructors or contracting with outside instructors.
Detailed Fiscal Analysis
The bill modifies curriculum requirements for school districts by changing the requirement that the curriculum include venereal disease education with an emphasis on abstinence to a requirement that the curriculum include sexually transmitted infection prevention education, and specifically HIV/AIDS prevention education. In addition, the bill requires that school districts, community schools, and STEM schools provide age appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention education to students at least once in grades 7 through 9 and again in grades 10 through 12. The bill stipulates several requirements regarding this education, including that the instructors be trained in the appropriate courses and that the school district or school provide periodic in-service training for instructors to learn new developments in the scientific understanding of sexual health and HIV/AIDS.
The cost to schools of these provisions will vary depending on whether they are offering this type of education currently and whether they are able to adapt existing free or low-cost resources to develop the required curriculum and in-service training. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer free resources on HIV/AIDS prevention, although their current resources targeting youth focus on abstinence and may not meet the requirements of the bill. Local departments of health may also be willing to partner with schools in providing training and other resources. In addition to government agencies, many national and local nonprofit organizations may also serve as low-cost resources for schools.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cuyahoga County offers a program called "Responsible Sexual Behavior Curriculum Delivery," which likely exceeds the requirements of the bill, but provides one example of the costs of a related program in a large urban school district. Cleveland's program provides comprehensive health education regarding sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy prevention, and related areas to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Among this program's several initiatives is one that offers HIV/AIDS education in grades 7 through 12. The program is a partnership between the school district, the city, the county board of health, and several charitable foundations. Last school year the program operated at just under $500,000 from grant funding. The $500,000 provided funds for three program staff, outside consultants, and program evaluation.
Cleveland's program likely provides an upper limit on the cost of the bill to a school district. The cost to most school districts will be much less as districts should be able to meet the bill's requirements through a less extensive program. In addition, districts such as Cleveland that may already be meeting the bill's requirements will have no additional cost as a result of the bill.
