STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6498
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to expanding health
education curriculum to include breast cancer screenings
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and my be cited as "Siena's Law".
2 § 2. Subdivision 5 of section 804 of the education law, as amended by
3 chapter 390 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
4 5. a. Instruction regarding methods of prevention and detection of
5 certain cancers, including but not limited to breast cancer, skin
6 cancer, testicular cancer and other cancers where certain preventive
7 measures have become generally accepted and certain detection methods
8 have been adopted and recommended generally to the public. Such instruc-
9 tion shall be an integral part of a required health education course at
10 the senior high school level, in addition to continued health guidance
11 in senior high schools. Any such course shall be taught by teachers
12 holding a certificate to teach health. With respect to instruction
13 regarding breast cancer, such instruction shall include age and develop-
14 mentally appropriate instruction in performing self-examinations.
15 b. In addition to the requirements of paragraph a of this subdivision,
16 with respect to the instruction regarding breast cancer, such instruc-
17 tion may be offered in elementary and middle schools as deemed appropri-
18 ate by local boards of education and the chancellor of the city school
19 district of the city of New York.
20 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
21 the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09929-01-5
