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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Erin's Law Passed in 2016, But Has Not Been Implemented

In 2016, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 72, Erin's Law.  
Erin's Law required:
Maryland schools to implement an “age-appropriate” sexual assault and abuse awareness and prevention program for grades K-12.Capital News Service, 2/4/2016
As passed, House Bill 72 states:
(B) (1) THE STATE BOARD AND EACH NONPUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE STATE SHALL DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A PROGRAM OF AGE–APPROPRIATE EDUCATION ON THE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT. (2) THE PROGRAM REQUIRED UNDER PARAGRAPH (1) OF THIS SUBSECTION SHALL BE:
(I) TAUGHT BY A TEACHER WHO IS TRAINED TO PROVIDE INSTRUCTION ON THE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSAULT; AND
(II) INCORPORATED INTO THE HEALTH CURRICULUM OF EACH COUNTY BOARD AND EACH NONPUBLIC SCHOOL. (C) THE STATE BOARD SHALL ADOPT REGULATIONS TO CARRY OUT THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION.
SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect July 1, 2016. Approved by the Governor, May 19, 2016. 

Yet, as of today, April 18, 2018, the Maryland State Board of Education has not adopted any Regulations to carry out the provisions of the bill. 

On March 1, 2018, in a hearing before the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee, Delegate Luedtke mentioned that "it had already been too long since we passed Erin's Law for it to be implemented in the schools" and that he did not want a new bill on sex abuse education to give "a new dictate to MSDE [Maryland State Department of Education] that would then delay further the implementation [of Erin's Law]."  Video of this statement is below.

Does the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the Maryland State Board of Education have the best interest of children as their goal? Does MSDE and the Maryland State Board of Education follow Maryland law?

A Maryland bill passed to help keep students safe from sexual abuse and assault has not been implemented two years after passage, and the failure to implement that law caused legislators concern this year about passing additional laws to keep children safe.

1 comment:

  1. “age-appropriate” Does this infer that preschoolers and kindergarteners will be trained in martial arts?

    ReplyDelete

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