Senate Bill 216 passed through the Senate Education Committee, after some discussion of the addition allowing parents to decline the training or publications about domestic violence and sexual assault.
SB 216 is a bill inspired by Erin’s Law, promoting sexual assault awareness and domestic violence training in schools.
Amy Saltzman with Sen. Lesil McGuire’s(R) office explained that there had been some dicussion of letting districts determine the procedure for notifying parents of the training and allowing decline of it.
Senator Bert Stedman(R) of Sitka raised concern over the language.
Sen. Stedman: “I’m not going to object to the inclusion of this language but just as a cautionary note sometimes its the parent that is the perpetrator and in those situations I think it would be logical to assume that the parent would object to any of the training.”
Saltzman stated that the logic behind that particular change was for parents who would rather address those subjects with their children themselves but also sat that a parent declining the training for their child may raise red flags to the school district.
SB 216 has been referred to Senate Finance. Its companion bill, House Bill 233 was referred to House Finance March 28.