Dozens of state and county agencies are turning away tens of thousands of dollars in federal grants aimed at monitoring teens’ sexual behavior and lowering rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. did.
The measure further complicates and polarizes sex education in K-12 schools as some Republican-led legislatures seek to more tightly regulate what and when students learn about their bodies. reflects changes in many states. The new law is part of a broader push to strengthen “parental rights” and remove LGBTQ+ content from classrooms, a central theme that has flooded the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Experts say a post-pandemic rise in sexually transmitted diseases and increasingly restricted access to abortion are making it difficult to ensure students learn about topics such as adolescence, safe sex and relationship violence. These topics are particularly important.
Anne-Marie Amys Oelschlager, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, says young people need training to get good information instead of other unreliable sources like social media. He said it is essential to have a trusted adult who can help.
“If we stop talking about these things or try to hide things, we only increase the risk,” she says.
A 2021 government survey shows fewer teens are sexually active, but federal data from the same year shows teens and young adults account for half of all sexually transmitted disease cases. It has also been suggested that. For the youngest generation, the language around sex is evolving.
This year, lawmakers passed a bill that would ban teaching human sexuality by fourth grade in Indiana and sexual reproduction or sexual intercourse by fifth grade in Arkansas. In Kentucky, educators cannot teach about sex or sexually transmitted diseases before sixth grade, and older students require parental consent. A small number of states require parents to opt in to instruction rather than opt out.
In Florida, materials related to reproductive health, human sexuality, and sexually transmitted diseases must be approved by state officials at any grade level. The curriculum was scheduled to be reviewed by the end of September, according to a letter from state officials.
Alison Macklin, director of policy and advocacy for the progressive sex education group SIECUS, said proponents of comprehensive sex education argue that restrictions in early education prevent children from building age-appropriate basic knowledge each year. He said he may not be able to get it.
“You weren’t going to teach trigonometry to first graders, were you?” she said. “But you need to have a foundational knowledge in first grade to be able to reach that in high school.”
“Sex education is exactly the same,” Macklin continued, suggesting that young people aren’t ready for adolescence if they haven’t yet learned “the basics, like the correct terminology for body parts.” did.
Puberty begins for girls between the ages of 8 and 13, and for boys it is usually delayed by two years. For example, to comply with Kentucky’s new law, the state’s Education Department recommended that schools eliminate fifth-grade classes on puberty and reproductive body parts.
David Walls, executive director of the Family Foundation, a Christian group in Kentucky that supports the law, said the consensus was that sex education in elementary schools is “not necessary or appropriate under any circumstances.” Ta.
Many parents disagree with what sex education advocates consider age-appropriate boundaries, especially when it comes to gender identity and “the idea that biological sex is not an immutable characteristic,” he said. said.
“This law provides a basic level of protection so parents can review the curriculum and decide whether this is content they want their children to participate in,” Walls said.
Although there is federal guidance for developing evidence-based, age-appropriate sexual health curricula, state laws and local implementation run the gamut.
According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, 28 states require sex education and 35 states require HIV education. Most states require that instruction on sexual activity and disease prevention include abstinence, and most allow parents to opt out.
While many states are cutting back on sex education, others are codifying comprehensive and comprehensive standards. For example, Massachusetts recently announced new sexual health education guidelines, which were last updated in 1999.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have launched a program aimed at tracking teens’ behavior and teaching them abstinence and contraception, with the goal of creating a safe environment and preventing pregnancy and disease. has provided millions of dollars in grants.
The Idaho Department of Public Health announced that it ended its administration of HHS grants for the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) effective July 1 because lawmakers did not approve the spending during the legislative session.
New Hampshire withdrew PREP funding after the five-member Republican-led council that approves contracts repeatedly blocked funding in 2022. However, PREP funding does not necessarily disappear if state authorities deny it. Instead, they can be awarded directly to local organizations, which is currently the case in New Hampshire.
A separate grant is provided by the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health for biennial youth surveys. As of March 2022, six states have terminated their research agreements: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, and South Carolina. Some of these states have also enacted new laws that limit schools’ ability to conduct investigations.
Four Florida counties, including parts of the Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami metropolitan areas, also withdrew from another CDC grant to expand medical resources and education for students.
The CDC “will always advance the best available science,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the agency’s Division of Youth and School Health. The agency said it is committed to collecting data that reveals youth health issues and recommending evidence-based programs to address them.
Ethier said there will always be “a disconnect” between school recommendations and state and local policies, but the focus is on “the entire school environment” rather than specific health classes.
“It worries me every time I feel like educators are unable to thoughtfully answer young people’s questions,” Ethier said.
Teen Health Mississippi is an organization powered by the curiosity of teens, training educators and providing supplemental programs for parents and teens.
About a quarter of the state’s counties work with nonprofit organizations and the state health department to implement “Abstinence Plus” programs. The program is an option that schools must teach about contraception in addition to their now permanent mandate to teach abstinence.
The group’s director, Hope Crenshaw, said the county’s low percentage suggests “many young people aren’t getting that information, and many are getting it based on their zip code.” He said he is doing so.
“Young people want information to protect themselves,” Crenshaw said.
Kayla Smith is one of them. Her 18-year-old freshman at the University of Mississippi volunteered to be a youth advocate for Teen Health Mississippi, engaging with her colleagues and answering their questions.
The topic of sex is “taboo” in Mississippi, Smith said. All she remembers is one day of optional sex education in middle school.
“I wanted information about healthy relationships and birth control options,” she says. Rather, she believes abstinence-only curricula “withhold information about important details that can help people make safe and informed health choices.”
Associated Press writers Holly Raymer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.