Erin's Law
In August 2019, New York State became the 37th state to sign Erin’s Law into legislation. New York State’s law, (Chapter 187 of the Laws of 2019) - known as Erin's Law - requires public schools to teach child sexual abuse and exploitation prevention classes to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Erin's Law is named for Erin Merryn, an abuse survivor and activist against child sexual abuse who has advocated for similar laws nationwide for over a decade. Erin’s Law is intended to help children, teachers, and parents in New York State schools identify sexual abuse, and to provide awareness, assistance, referral, or resource information for children and families who are victims of child sexual abuse. In Summer 2020, work was completed with organizations that researched, developed age-appropriate grade bands, and found multiple resources to help school districts develop curriculum and useful lesson plans to implement Erin’s Law.
The following grade band curricular benchmarks have been developed to help assist schools and districts implement Erin’s Law. Under the following grade band benchmarks are resources for schools and districts. These are suggested resources as all curricular programming and instruction are locally determined.