AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas State Board of Education is meeting this week to consider changes to how children are taught about health and sex—curriculum that hasn’t been revised since 1997.
Texas requires public schools to follow an abstinence-first education model, and it doesn’t require any instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. The SBOE is expected to hold a final vote on revisions Friday which would continue the state’s focus on abstinence, but with new attention on prevention.
The SBOE has spent more than a year considering revisions to sexual education guidelines for schools. This week, hundreds of people registered to address the board about the revisions before the final vote.
A report released by the Texas Freedom Network in 2016 found 83% of school districts in the state teach abstinence-only or nothing at all about sex education. An amendment that would have added definitions for sexual orientation and gender identity was voted down in September.
The guidelines serve as a floor, not a ceiling, for public school districts in Texas. Austin ISD added curriculum on consent and gender identity to its sexual education plan in 2019.
KXAN politics reporter John Engel is working on a full report on the proposed revisions with reactions from advocacy groups, airing tonight at 6 p.m.
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