Calif. Board Of Education Adopts Comprehensive Sex Education Curriculum

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 18 Mar 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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The California State Board of Education recently adopted its first set of health education content standards, which includes a comprehensive sex education curriculum, MediaNews/Contra Costa Times reports. The guidelines make clear what students from kindergarten through 12th grade are expected to learn about health issues.

The new standards were required under the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act, which went into effect in January 2004. The law ensures that students who receive sex education in schools obtain accurate information on abstinence, human sexuality, contraception, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in an age-appropriate manner. It also bans abstinence-only sex education. Under the new guidelines, students in the fifth grade will learn about the risks of STIs and teachers in middle school will discuss the psychological and physical consequences of rape and sexual assault. High schools are required to provide students with "medically accurate" information about condoms and other forms of birth control, MediaNews/Times reports. Although health classes have covered those topics since the law was passed, the new standards provide greater detail.

Mary Marks, a health education consultant for the California Department of Education, said it is critical for students to be taught about drugs, sex and violence at an early age. Phyllida Burlingame -- an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and coordinator of the California Sex Education Roundtable -- said, "The law is great, but there's a big question of implementation." She added, "Now, in a significant way, the state is communicating what its values are." Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, urged parents to write letters to opt their children out of the classes. "This is another reason for parents to get their children out of the government school system and into private schools, church schools and home schools," Thomasson said (Hull, MediaNews/Contra Costa Times, 3/14).

The new health education standards are available online.

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