2006 Code of Virginia § 22.1-207.1 - Family life education

22.1-207.1. Family life education.

The Board of Education shall develop by December 1, 1987, standards oflearning and curriculum guidelines for a comprehensive, sequential familylife education curriculum in grades K through 12. Such curriculum guidelinesshall include instruction as appropriate for the age of the student in familyliving and community relationships, abstinence education, the value ofpostponing sexual activity, the benefits of adoption as a positive choice inthe event of an unwanted pregnancy, human sexuality, human reproduction,steps to take to avoid sexual assault, and the availability of counseling andlegal resources, and, in the event of such sexual assault, the importance ofimmediate medical attention and advice, as well as the requirements of thelaw and the etiology, prevention and effects of sexually transmitted diseases.

All such instruction shall be designed to promote parental involvement,foster positive self concepts and provide mechanisms for coping with peerpressure and the stresses of modern living according to the students'developmental stages and abilities. The Board shall also establishrequirements for appropriate training for teachers of family life education,which shall include training in instructional elements to support the variouscurriculum components.

For the purposes of this section, "abstinence education" means aneducational or motivational component which has as its exclusive purposeteaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized byteenagers' abstaining from sexual activity before marriage.

(1987, c. 371; 1999, c. 422; 2002, c. 554; 2004, c. 1030.)