Summary of SB150  - As Passed by the Kentucky General Assembly on 03-16-2023

Section 1.  Requirements & prohibitions for public and charter schools and school districts, KY Board of Education (KBE), and KY Department of Education (KDE)

• School districts must provide parents a listing of each of the health services and mental health services related to human sexuality, contraception, or family planning available at the student’s school and of the parents’ right to withhold consent or decline any of those specific services.
  
  
• Schools must obtain parental consent prior to providing health services or mental health services to the student or for the school personnel to make a referral for the student to receive a school’s health services or mental health services or to an external provider of such services. 
  
  
• School districts shall respect the rights of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of the student through procedures to encourage students to discuss mental or physical health or life issues with their parents or through facilitating the discussion with their parents.
  
  
• Schools shall not require school personnel or students to use pronouns for students that do not conform to that particular student's biological sex as indicated on the student’s original, unedited birth certificate issued at the time of birth.
  
  
• Does not prohibit schools or school district or district personnel from withholding information from a parent if a reasonably prudent person would believe, based on previous conduct and history, that the disclosure would result in the child becoming a dependent child or an abused or neglected child as defined in KRS 600.020.
  
  
• Schools shall provide the student’s parents with access to review a well-being questionnaire or assessment, or a health screening form prior to it being given to a student for research purposes and shall obtain parental consent to administer the assessment or screening. Parental consent shall not be a general consent to these assessments or forms but shall be required for each assessment or form.  A parent’s refusal shall not be an indicator of having a belief regarding the topic of the assessment or form.
  
  
• KBE and KDE shall not require or recommend that a local school district keep any student information confidential from a student’s parents.
  
  
• KBE and KDE shall not require or recommend policies or procedures for the use of pronouns that do not conform to a student’s biological sex as indicated on the student’s original, unedited birth certificate issued at the time of birth.
  
  
• Does not remove the duty to report if there is reasonable cause to believe the child is a dependent child or an abused or neglected child due to the risk of physical or emotional injury identified.
  
  
• Does not prohibit a school district or the district’s personnel from seeking or providing emergency medical or mental health services for a student as outlined in the district’s policies. 

Section 2.  Requirements & prohibitions regarding curriculum

• Ensure that children in grade five (5) and below do not receive any instruction through curriculum or programs on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases.
  
  
• Ensure any child, regardless of grade level, enrolled in the district does not receive any instruction or presentation that has a goal or purpose of students studying or exploring gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.
  
  
• Require school Districts to have a policy to notify a parent in advance and obtain the parent's written consent before the parent's child in grade six (6) or above receives any instruction through curriculum or programs on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases authorized in this section. 
  
  
• Any course, curriculum, or program offered by a public school on the subject of human sexuality provided by school personnel or by third parties authorized by the school shall provide an alternative course, curriculum or program without any penalty to the student’s grade or standing for students whose parents have not provided written consent for the student to participate in the offered course, curriculum or program.
  
  
• Schools must allow a parent to inspect these programs and review the curriculum, instructional materials, lesson plans, assessments or tests, surveys or questionnaires, assignments, and instructional activities on these courses.
  
  
• Schools must provide a written notification to parents of a student at least 2 weeks prior to the student’s planned participation in any course, curriculum, or program on the subject of human sexuality.  This notification shall provide information on when the curriculum will be presented, how the parent may review the material, the name and contact information for the teacher of the curriculum and the personnel responsible for it oversight.
  
  
• Schools shall not adopt policies or procedures with the intent of keeping any student information confidential from parents.
  
  
• Does not prohibit school personnel from discussing human sexuality, including the sexuality of any historic person, group, or public figure, where the discussion provides necessary context in relation to a topic of instruction from a curriculum approved pursuant to KRS 160.345, or responding to a question from a student during class regarding human sexuality as it relates to a topic of instruction from an approved curriculum. 

Section 3:  Student Privacy

• The KY General Assembly finds that:
• Schools have a duty to protect the dignity, health, welfare and privacy rights of their students;
• Students have concerns about privacy and do not wish to be viewed in a state of undress by other students of the opposite biological sex;
• Allowing students of one biological sex to use bathrooms, locker rooms, etc. designated for those of the opposite biological sex will cause disruption to school activities, create unsafe conditions and will cause embarrassment and psychological injury to students;
• Parents have a reasonable expectation that students will not be allowed to view students of another biological sex in various states of undress; and
• Schools have a duty to protect the privacy rights of students and not compel them to undress in the sight of students of the opposite biological sex. 
• Each local board of education or charter school board of directors shall, after allowing public comment on the issue at an open meeting, adopt policies necessary to protect the privacy rights outlined in the bill and enforce them.  Those policies “at a minimum” will include not allowing students to use restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms that are reserved for students of a different biological sex. [Biological sex is defined in the bill as: the physical condition of being male or female which is determined by a person’s chromosomes and is identified at birth by a person’s anatomy].
  
  
• A student who asserts to school officials that his or her gender is different from his or her biological sex and whose parent or legal guardian provides written consent to school officials shall be provided with the best available accommodation, but that accommodation shall not include the use of school restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms designated for use by students of the opposite biological sex while students of the opposite biological sex are present or could be present. Acceptable accommodations may include but are not limited to access to single-stall restrooms or controlled use of faculty bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms. 

Section 4:  Requirements and prohibitions for health care providers

Note: This Section amends KRS 311, which is the physician licensing statute.  There is no definition of “health care provider” in this section of SB 150 pertaining to the activities of a healthcare provider or prohibition of health care services.   Earlier versions of HB 470 specifically included APRNs and other levels of nurses, pharmacists and mental health providers. 

• A healthcare provider shall not, for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of, or to validate a minor’s perception of, the minor’s sex, if that appearance or perception is inconsistent with a minor’s sex, knowingly: 

(a) Prescribe or administer any drug to delay or stop normal puberty;

(b) Prescribe or administer testosterone, estrogen, or progesterone, in amounts greater than would normally be produced endogenously in a healthy person of the same age and sex; 

(c) Perform any sterilizing surgery, including castration, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, penectomy, and vasectomy; 

(d) Perform any surgery that artificially constructs tissue having the appearance of genitalia differing from the minor's sex, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty; or 

(e) Remove any healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue. 

• The prohibitions above shall not restrict the provision of services to: 

(a) A minor born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, including external biological sex characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous;

(b) A minor diagnosed with a disorder of sexual development, if a health care provider has determined, through genetic or biochemical testing, that the minor does not have a sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action, that is normal for a biological male or biological female; or 

(c) A minor needing treatment for an infection, injury, disease, or disorder that has been caused or exacerbated by any action or procedure prohibited by subsection (2) of this section. 

• The licensing or certifying agency for health care providers shall revoke the health care provider’s licensure or certification if, after the agency’s disciplinary and hearing process, the health care provider has been found to have violated the above provisions. 

• Civil action to recover damages for injury suffered as a result of a violation of these provisions may be commenced before the later of:
• The date on which the person reaches the age of thirty (30) years; or
• Within three (3) years from the time the person discovered or reasonably should have discovered that the injury or damages were cause by the violation.
• If the health care provider has initiated a course of treatment for a minor that includes the prescription or administration of any drug or hormone prohibited in this bill and if the health care provider determines and documents in the minor’s medical record that immediately terminating the minor’s use of the drug or hormone would cause harm to the minor, the health care provider may institute a period during which the minor’s use of the drug or hormone is systematically reduced. 

Section 5:  Emergency Clause

• Whereas situations exist in which the privacy rights of students are violated, an emergency is declared to exist, and Sections 1 through 3 of this Act take effect upon its passage and approval by the Governor or upon its otherwise becoming a law.