An Act to create 118.018 and 121.02 (1) (L) 1m. of the statutes; Relating to: requiring child sexual abuse prevention education. (FE)
SB171 would require every Wisconsin school board to provide a child sexual abuse prevention instructional program beginning in the 2026-27 school year for pupils in 4-year-old kindergarten through grade 12. The program must be developmentally appropriate and evidence-informed, and it must cover topics such as age-appropriate facts about sexual abuse, anatomically correct body-part terms, saying no to unwanted advances, personal boundaries, public versus private body parts, consent, safe and unsafe touch, identifying trustworthy adults, and how to report abuse to those adults.
The bill also requires annual advance notice to parents or guardians before the instruction is offered. That notice must include the approximate time the program will be taught, an explanation of the opt-out process, an outline of the grade-level curriculum, and parent-facing information about child sexual abuse prevention, trauma, warning signs, offender behaviors, reporting, vulnerability factors, and trauma-informed responses. Parents or guardians may exempt a pupil from the instruction by submitting a written request to the teacher or principal.
The bill would create a new statutory section, 118.018, and amend school board duties under 121.02 to make child sexual abuse prevention education a required annual instructional offering in every school district. It would impose a statewide curriculum obligation on school boards, require at least one instructional session in each grade, and establish a parental notification and opt-out framework. The primary affected parties would be public school boards, students from 4K through grade 12, and parents or guardians who would receive notice and retain the ability to exempt their child.
The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, so there is no detailed public debate captured here. Based on the bill’s bipartisan introduction and cosponsorship, the measure appears to have been framed as a child-safety and prevention initiative rather than a partisan policy fight. However, the bill ultimately failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, indicating that it did not advance to enactment despite its introduction.
The main policy tension in SB171 is between expanding mandatory child sexual abuse prevention instruction and preserving parental control over a child’s participation. Supporters are likely to emphasize early prevention, student safety, and giving children age-appropriate tools to recognize and report abuse. Potential concerns would center on curriculum content, age appropriateness across all grades, and whether the required topics—especially consent, body terminology, and discussions of abuse—should be mandated statewide or left to local discretion. The opt-out provision appears designed to address some of those concerns, but it may not fully resolve objections from those wary of state-mandated instruction in sensitive subject matter.