2 School Districts Get a 100 on Annual Sexual Health Education Survey

Two local school districts - Irvine Unified and Newport-Mesa Unified - received perfect scores of 100 on the survey of comprehensive sexual health education done by Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.  Three other districts - Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, Huntington Beach Union High School District and Laguna Beach Unified showed increases in their scores compared to last year.  The study with supporting materials is available at http://www.publicschoolsproject.com/

The survey of local schools was created to help evaluate how well public schools are delivering the nine specifically required elements required by the California Education Code sections 51930-51993  (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=51001-52000&file=51930-51932  and http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=51001-52000&file=51933).  Public schools in California are only required to provide education about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.  The schools may elect to provide comprehensive sexual health education, but are not required to.  If a school elects to provide, all elements of the educational program listed in the Education Code must be provided - schools may not elect to pick and choose, cafeteria style, what they will cover in class.

Planned Parenthood used 4 categories to characterize the required elements:

1. Overall Requirements
2. Human Development and Healthy Relationships
3. STD Information
4. Pregnancy Prevention

All schools surveyed received high marks for:

• Materials which did not teach religious doctrine or promote bias against persons protected by non-discrimination policies
• Educating about skills for responsible decision making
• Instruction about reproduction and anatomy
• Promoting healthy relationships
• Encouraging students to talk with parents or guardians about sexual health issues
• Teaching abstinence is the only 100% effective method to prevent pregnancy and STDs.

There are several areas for improvement:

• 87% of school districts don't discuss the safety and effectiveness of all FDA contraceptive methods including emergency contraception.  Some districts teach students about birth control pills, condoms and using diaphragms with spermicide.  Four districts do not cover contraception at all. 
• Over 25% of districts teach that abstinence is the only way to prevent contracting STD's.
• 6 districts provide no information on how or where to go for STD testing and treatment.
• 1/3 of the districts address issues relating to sexual orientation and gender roles during coverage of healthy body image.  
• Only 3 districts completely cover the issue of a healthy image by including self-esteem, positive body image and self-care.
• 80% of districts don't include information which is culturally diverse.  Students who are LGBTQ and those with physical or mental disabilities are not represented in the materials.
• 60% of districts do not discuss committed relationships which are not heterosexual marriage. Grandparents raising grandchildren, unmarried monogamous couples, LGBTQ families and other non-traditional families are not discussed.

The survey has been effective in getting attention on improving comprehensive sexual health education.  7 school districts showed improvement since the previous survey last year and no district showed a decline in score.  Planned Parenthood is very pleased with how effective the survey has been and how well the results have been received by the school districts and communities.