Dive Brief:
- Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) have introduced the Teach Safe Relationships Act of 2015, which would require public middle and high school health classes to teach about "safe relationship behavior."
- The bill was inspired by the rising number of sexual assault cases reported on college and university campuses.
- Federal law does not currently mandate that health and sex ed courses discuss sexual assault prevention.
Dive Insight:
It is unclear how the GOP will respond to the bill, especially given what a sticky topic sex ed itself has become and the preference of many conservatives to push for abstinence-only education. What is clear is how important classes like this are — especially if students are not getting full sex ed classes.