Austin district's sex ed lessons ready for public preview

Parents soon will get their first glimpses at drafts of the Austin school district's revised sex education lessons, which for the first time will introduce topics such as sexual orientation, gender identity and sexually transmitted diseases in elementary school.

For months, the district has been revamping its Human Sexuality and Responsibility curriculum, with plans to roll it out next school year. The curriculum hadn't been updated for elementary students for a decade and for middle schoolers since 2012. The curriculum standards include safety; identity; anatomy and physiology; puberty and adolescent development; pregnancy and reproduction; and sexually transmitted diseases.

The new lessons will be available for preview 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the district's Science and Health Resource Center, 305 N. Bluff Drive, and 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Austin High School, 1715 Cesar Chavez St. Families also will be able to take two online surveys to share feedback if they desire.

Austin school trustees must approve the curriculum before it can be adopted, and the vote on it is slated for June 17.

District administrators have written the draft elementary school curriculum. For middle schoolers, the district recommends using "Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works," a curriculum developed by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and published by behavioral health organization ETR. The middle school lessons are inclusive of LGBT and transgender students, and omit references to gender, specifically from discussions about anatomy, according to the ETR website listing updates to the curriculum's second edition.

Administrators said they aim to provide age-appropriate lessons on safety, puberty and gender identity to align with their mission of accepting all students. The lessons total five in elementary and 10 in middle school.

Under the board-approved standards, which informed how the lessons were written, the proposed lessons would include:

• For third graders: Identifying the male and female reproductive systems; demonstrating how to treat others with respect; and how to identify trusted adults to talk to about sexual orientation.

• For fourth graders: Identifying trusted adults to talk about bullying and sexual abuse; learning about puberty and hygiene; and identifying trusted adults to talk to about sexual orientation.

• For fifth graders: Defining sexual orientation and romantic attraction; identifying trusted adults to talk to about relationships and sexual orientation; describing the way humans reproduce; and discussing sexually transmitted diseases and ways they are transmitted.

• For sixth graders: Differentiating between and explaining expressions of gender; explaining personal rights as to touches; defining sexual intercourse, human reproduction, sexual abstinence and pregnancy prevention; and developing a plan to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

• For seventh graders: Identifying sources of information about sexuality; differentiating between and explaining terms of gender; communicating respectfully with and about people of all gender identities and sexual orientations; defining sexual intercourse, human reproduction and abstinence; and discussing pregnancy prevention.

• For eighth graders: accessing information about people of all gender identities and sexual orientations; describing the situations and impact of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexual assault, incest, rape and dating violence; defining sexual intercourse, human reproduction, abstinence and contraception effectiveness; identifying options available in pregnancy, including emergency contraception; and describing the steps of condom use.

The proposed curriculum also includes lessons for elementary students about consent and refusal skills, which are recommended to start in third grade and continue through eighth grade.

Under the district’s current curriculum, human sexuality lessons focus on social and emotional learning in the early elementary years, teaching students about feelings, family, friendship, conflict resolutions and bullying. Brief discussions about adolescent changes don’t come until fifth grade. In sixth grade, students are taught the identification and function of reproductive systems, sexting, sexual harassment and the benefits of abstinence.

But many of the district's students hit puberty in much earlier elementary grades, creating the need to introduce some lessons sooner, Gullett Elementary Principal Tisha Brown said.

"It's healthy for us to be moving forward," Brown said. "Our kids are exposed to things at a younger and younger age, and it's important for us to teach them healthy choices. It's important to have healthy discussions in a place that it's normalized."

As the Austin district nears adoption of the new curriculum, Texas lawmakers are weighing their own revisions to sex education that some say would improve transparency for families.

Senate Bill 784, filed by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would require each member of a school health advisory council to be appointed by school district trustees — current law requires only five members of the council be board-appointed. The bill also calls for requiring council meetings and minutes to be made public, and it would instruct a school board to implement a policy regarding the adoption of human sexuality curriculum, Hughes said. The bill also would mandate that, upon request, districts send parents the curriculum by mail or email, and that the curriculum be posted on the district's website. Current law requires districts to send a notice about the curriculum and make it available to parents who wish to review it.

Texas law requires schools that offer sex education to promote abstinence as the preferred behavior for unmarried students. The districts could address contraception but can’t distribute condoms, according to state law.

Austin is among 17 percent of Texas school districts that teach “abstinence-plus,” which encourages abstinence but also teaches other methods to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.