Governor Doyle Signs Healthy Youth Act

MADISON – Governor Jim Doyle today signed into law the Healthy Youth Act. The Governor was joined by supporters of the bill for the ceremony at the State Capitol.

“Throughout my career, I’ve worked really hard to make sure every single kid in Wisconsin can reach their highest potential,” Governor Doyle said. “Today I am pleased to sign the Healthy Youth Act, which gives every Wisconsin teen the tools they need to make healthy and responsible life decisions.”

Assembly Bill 458, the Healthy Youth Act, updates Wisconsin ’s education standards to provide comprehensive, medically accurate, un-biased and age-appropriate information to students in classrooms that choose to teach human growth and development courses. The bill ensures teens are taught about the potential negative consequences of their choices and how to identify abuse, and it helps prevent teen pregnancy in Wisconsin .

The bill also preserves the ability of school boards to opt out of human growth and development curricula and preserves the ability of parents to review the curricula and exempt their children from the curricula.

Governor Doyle thanked Representatives Grigsby and Roys and Senators Taylor and Lehman for their work on the bill.