49-6-1302 - Development of plan by state board of education Adoption by LEA. - Tennessee Statutes

49-6-1302. Development of plan by state board of education Adoption by LEA.

(a)  (1)  The state board of education shall develop a complete plan of family life instruction suitable for implementation by any LEA that fails to devise, adopt and implement a local program of family life instruction pursuant to § 49-6-1301.

     (2)  The plan shall include all policies and procedures necessary for local implementation, administration, evaluation and supervision of family life instruction. The plan shall emphasize abstinence from sexual relations outside of marriage, the right and responsibility of a person to refuse to engage in such relations, basic moral values, as well as the obligations and consequences that arise from intimacy. The plan shall include a component that specifically addresses the nature and prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. In developing the plan, the state board shall consider such programs and materials as “Sex Respect,” “Teen-Aid,” and the “3-R Project” of the South Carolina departments of education and health. The plan shall require the LEA to undertake appropriate and adequate measures to encourage and maintain the highest level of parental and community support for family life instruction in the home, in church and at school. The plan shall include  policies and procedures whereby the LEA may utilize the services of qualified health care professionals and social workers to assist in family life instruction; however, the plan shall preclude any individual from serving as a family life instructor unless the individual is found by the LEA to be of upright character and of good public standing.

(b)  Prior to implementing the complete plan of family life instruction developed by the state board of education, an LEA shall conduct at least one (1) public hearing, at which time the plan shall be explained and at which time members of the public shall have the opportunity to speak and express their opinions and concerns. Additionally, the plan shall require the LEA to periodically conduct thereafter, but not less frequently than once each September, public meetings for parents to confer with family life instructors, to review resource materials and course content and to offer comments and suggestions. Furthermore, after implementation of the plan, upon request of the LEA or upon petition by fifty (50) or more parents or guardians of children enrolled within the LEA, the department of education shall audit the LEA for the purpose of evaluating the quality and effectiveness of the plan of family life instruction as administered by the LEA, and for the purpose of recommending methods whereby the LEA may improve the quality and effectiveness and foster a higher level of parental and community support for family life instruction.

[Acts 1989, ch. 565, § 1.]