The Healthy Teens Act protects Florida’s teens by requiring that public schools receiving state funding provide comprehensive, medically-accurate, and age-appropriate factual information when teaching about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, family planning, or pregnancy.

Parents and teachers agree that youth need comprehensive sex education that is age-appropriate, including the facts that help protect them from diseases that threaten their health.

• 73% of Floridians believe public schools should teach a comprehensive sex education program.[1] [1]
• 90% of Florida teachers feel sex education should be taught in schools.[2] [2]

The Healthy Teens Act Promotes Communication and Responsible Decision-Making

• Comprehensive sex education teaches abstinence as the only certain way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; encourages family communication about sexuality; and teaches skills for making responsible decisions, including how to avoid unwanted verbal, physical, and sexual advances and how not to make unwanted verbal, physical, and sexual advances.
• Responsible sex education programs do not increase sexual activity, but studies demonstrate they can help young people delay sexual activity and increase contraceptive use among those who are sexually active, as well as decrease the number of partners among those who are sexually active.[3] [3]
• It is irresponsible to withhold information from teens that can protect them from unintended pregnancy and dangerous infections — and that may just save their lives.

Florida’s Teens Need to be Safe & Informed

• ·         In Florida, AIDS-related illnesses are the 7^th leading cause of death for teens and teens report 31% of all newly acquired cases of sexually transmitted infections. [4]

• In Florida, 266 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are reported every day, 11 cases every hour and one case ever 5.42 minutes, according to 2008 data. Approximately 66 percent (64, 129) of these cases occur among individuals between the ages of 15-24.
  
• Florida has the 3rd highest AIDS case rate in the country and the 5th highest HIV rate. A full 15% of new HIV infections are in those under the age of 25. [5][4] [6]
• Florida has the 8th highest syphilis rate of any state, with 4,578 reported cases in 2008. Cases reported in 2008 reflect an upward trend among both male and female populations.[5] [7]
• Florida has the 6^th highest teen pregnancy rate and each year 48,440 teens get pregnant.[6] [8]
• 12% of female high school students and 21% of male high school students in Florida reported having had four or more lifetime sexual partners.[7] [9]