Jenna's Law is named after survivor, Jenna Quinn. In 2007, Jenna reached out to Texas legislators about the need for schools to adopt age-appropriate curriculum requiring students and teachers to learn about child sexual abuse prevention. Texas Representative Tan Parker asked to honor Jenna's name and championed what is now known as Jenna’s Law.
May of 2009, Jenna’s Law passed the state senate unanimously making it the first child sexual abuse prevention requirement in the U.S named after a survivor mandating K-12 sexual abuse prevention training for:
1) students
2) school staff
3) caregivers
Each independent school district chooses their method of implementation for training. Schools are also required to maintain records of those that participated in the training.
Moreover, Jenna’s Law was amended and expanded to include other forms of abuse, requiring more child serving agencies to educate.
Additional institutions such as childcare centers, foster care centers, child placing agencies, and universities are now included.
Again, in 2017 Jenna’s Law was recently amended to include sex trafficking prevention for students and teachers in schools.
Since Jenna’s Law passed in 2009, she has worked with over 26 states to implement prevention education policies. Now, over half the country has followed suit, adopting legislation reflecting the principals of Jenna's Law.
In 2019, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX) and U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (NH) filed S. 924, The Jenna Quinn Law federally.
Jenna's Law is model legislation from 2009. Read the original language!
See a summary of how Jenna's Law looks after it's been adopted into the state's education requirements!
The first state to model legislation after Jenna's Law in 2009 was the state of Illinois in 2010 and 2011 with SB 2843.
"The year following the passage of Jenna's law, a bill that creates a task force to study sexual abuse prevention education in public schools was filed in Illinois. The bill gives the Task Force on Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children a charge of studying successful child sexual abuse prevention methods through education, including raising awareness through school handbooks and policies, provisions identical to that which Representative Parker successfully authored in Texas."
"In response to the Illinois Senate Bill, Dan Leal, Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Center for Denton County and a strong supporter of Jenna's Law, said, "It is exciting to see the bill initiated by Representative Parker moving forward to other states because that only means that more people will be educated and more children will be directed toward the help that Children's Advocacy Centers provide in our country."
- Star Local Media (September, 2010)
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