TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some Florida school districts are backing away from a more comprehensive approach. sex education State officials have called certain lessons on contraception, anatomy and consent inappropriate for students, and under pressure have come to support classes that focus on abstinence.
It was first reported that Florida Department of Education officials appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis are directing some of the state’s largest school districts to scale back lesson plans on not only sexual activity, but also contraception, human development, abuse and domestic violence. Orlando Sentinel.
The change reflects a nationwide push toward increased regulation in conservative states. What kids can learn Advocates worry that in an era when sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, young people won’t be reliably taught about puberty, safe sex and dating violence. On the rise Access to abortion is becoming increasingly restricted.
Recent changes to state law make it the responsibility of the Florida Department of Education to approve school districts’ reproductive health and disease education curricula if they use materials other than state-mandated textbooks.
About a dozen school districts across Florida have been told by state officials to limit their sex-education instruction programs, said Elisa Barr, a public health professor at the University of North Florida and chair of the Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, which advises school districts on developing and implementing comprehensive sex-education programs.
While Florida reports more HIV diagnoses than most other states, according to a health policy research nonprofit, Barr says comprehensive sex education can do more than reduce teen pregnancy and protect young people from HIV. KFF.
“Sex education is sexual abuse prevention. It’s dating violence prevention. And it helps young people develop healthier relationships and actually delay sexual activity,” Barr told The Associated Press. “We still 1 in 4 teenagers “Not many young people have been pregnant at least once by the time they’re 20, so cutting back on contraception information and education is a real disservice to young people. It’s very harmful.”
Research shows that comprehensive sex education can increase the time it takes for a teenager to have sex for the first time, reduce teen pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted diseases, and prevent sexual abuse.
A Florida Department of Education spokesman defended the state’s approach, emphasizing the importance of abstinence and recent changes. State Law Schools need to teach that “reproductive roles” are “dual, stable, and unchanging.”
“Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of abstinence from sexual activity as an expected standard and the consequences of teen pregnancy,” department spokeswoman Sydney Booker said. “The emphasis on abstinence is correct because state government should not emphasize or encourage sexual activity among children and minors.”
In Broward County Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-largest school district, which includes Fort Lauderdale, state officials told the district that diagrams of reproductive anatomy and demonstrations of how to use contraception “should not be included in any grade level,” according to a staff memo provided to The Associated Press.
Florida Department of Education officials also instructed school districts to remove the words “abuse, consent and domestic violence” from lesson plans for first-grade students and replace them with language they deem more age-appropriate, such as “talk to a trusted adult if you’re feeling uncomfortable.”
Barr said concerns expressed about the curriculum were “inconsistent” from district to district and were communicated verbally, not by email.
A representative for Orange County Public Schools, which includes Orlando, said the district revised its instructional plans in response to “verbal feedback” from the Department of Education.
“FDOE strongly encouraged the district to utilize the state-adopted document,” district spokesman Michael Orendorf said.
Under Florida law, schools are not required to teach sex education; if they do, they must emphasize abstinence as the “expected standard.” Florida parents have the right to opt their students out of the classes, but surveys show the public overwhelmingly supports sex education in schools.
“We need to take the politics and the religion out of the equation and really focus on science and what works for young people,” Barr said. “We know the answer: comprehensive sex education.”
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Kate Payne is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report to the United States is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.