Hello Healthy Futures Community,

I wanted to alert you to a very concerning bill that is up for a hearing tomorrow in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The bill is SB 1031 by Senator Bob Hall. 

What would SB 1031 do?

• Make it a state jail felony for a school district to study or allow a third party to study or survey a teen’s sexual behavior. 

• Make it a state jail felony for a university to conduct research on adolescent sexual behavior. 

• The bill would also require parent consent for drug companies or other researchers to study child sexual behavior, which typically already occurs through research review processes. 

Why is SB 1031 so alarming? It would:

• Make it impossible to evaluate interventions such as sex education. In any health education program, we want to know what produces positive behavior change, and what might backfire. Programs that have been evaluated for effectiveness are called evidence-based sex education, and they’re the core of our work supporting adolescent health at Healthy Futures. 

• Jeopardize $8 million in federal funding for the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance grant, which uses age-appropropriate student surveys to evaluate and improve programming. Grants go to 16 faith and community based organizations across Texas. 

• Eliminate all information on adolescent sexual risk behavior that we get through the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This is a crucial source of data about topics like sexual abuse, contraceptive use, and risk behaviors. 

• The bill would prevent researchers from asking a student about sexual orientation, so we wouldn’t know how our LGBTQ youth are doing in terms of mental health. These kids face tragically high levels of depression, anxiety and suicidality, and we need accurate data to help them thrive. 

Please see the following contact information for members of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee:

 Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst 
Capitol Office: GE.4
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0118
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Charles Perry 
Capitol Office: E1.806
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0128
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. César Blanco 
Capitol Office: GE.7
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0129
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Bob Hall 
Capitol Office: 4E.2
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0102
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Kelly Hancock 
Capitol Office: 1E.12
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0109
Link to Office Email Portal

Sen. Bryan Hughes
Capitol Office: 3E.8
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0101
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Morgan LaMantia 
Capitol Office: E1.712
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0127
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Borris L. Miles 
Capitol Office: 3E.12
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0113
Link to Office Email Portal

 Sen. Kevin Sparks 
Capitol Office: E1.810
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0131
Link to Office Email Portal

Thank you for your continued support on behalf of Texas youth,

Jen Biundo
Senior Director of Policy and Research
Healthy Futures of Texas