Requires health education to be taught in high schools regarding the abandoned infant protection program

BILL NUMBER:S5480A

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to health education regarding the abandoned infant protection program

Purpose

This legislation requires all schools to include instruction regarding the abandoned infant protection program and information about responsible parenting and the availability of confidential adoption services as part of health education.

In addition, it requires all health teachers to receive training to increase awareness of pregnancy concealment.

Summary of provisions

The education law is amended to add a new section 805. Subsection one requires schools to include instruction regarding the abandoned infant protection program, information about responsible parenting and the availability of confidential adoption services as part of the health education curriculum.

Subsection two provides that such instruction shall be taught by the regular classroom teachers or by teachers certified to teach health education, and shall be designed according to the needs and abilities of the pupils at successive grade levels.

Subsection three requires that all health teachers in New York receive training to increase awareness of pregnancy concealment and to identify students that may be concealing a pregnancy. Such training shall be developed by the Department of Education in conjunction with the Department of Health.

Justification

Under current law, the Abandoned Infant Protection Act allows individuals to safely abandon an infant not more than 30 days old with an appropriate person or in a suitable location without the fear of criminal prosecution. All fifty states have adopted some form of this law.

Under New York's law, the Office of Children and Family Services is charged with disseminating informational material about the Abandoned Infant Protection Act to hospitals and clinics, and the public.

However, campaigns targeting hospitals and clinics may not reach those women most at risk. Experts on neonaticide say that in many cases, women who kill or unsafely abandon their infants do not seek medical care during the pregnancy, and instead conceal the pregnancy and deliver the infant at home.

In addition, the law's effectiveness is also diminished due to insufficient financing of the public awareness campaigns. After the law was first passed in 2000, the Office of Children and Family Services developed public service announcements, but they stopped being broadcast after a year. Outreach is essentially limited to the distribution of pamphlets and brochures at hospitals, high schools and public events.

In states such as Illinois, which have incorporated instruction on the law into teenagers' health education curriculum, the number of infants illegally abandoned and found dead has been decreasing in tandem with such instruction.

Therefore, in order to increase the effectiveness of the Abandoned Infant Protection Act and save lives, this bill will increase awareness in a cost efficient manner by incorporating instruction on the law into the school health curriculum.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

Minimal.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the 90th day after it shall have become law; provided, however, that effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date is authorized to be made and completed on or before such date.