D46 Will Not Adopt Sex Ed Standards For Youngest Students

GRAYSLAKE, IL — Community Consolidated School District 46 in Grayslake, like many school districts throughout the Chicago area, has opted out of teaching sex education in line with national standards to its youngest students.

Last year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Keeping Kids Safe & Health Act, which calls on Illinois schools to adopt National Sex Education standard. Under the law, school districts that teach sex education are now required to use the new standards for instruction, according to a memo from District 46.

The new rules call for updated curriculum that provides personal health and safety education for schools that teach sex education to kindergarten through fifth grade students and comprehensive sexual health education for sixth through 12th graders.

School officials within District 46 say they've updated their sex education curriculum for middle school students but will not adopt it for kindergarten through fifth grade classes since sex ed is not taught to those grades.

Teachers will use a resource called ETR HealthSmart to help guide their instruction to middle school students. The updated instruction will include modules on nutrition, physical activity, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, emotional and mental health, first aid, teen dating violence, bullying, Erin's Law (sexual abuse prevention), puberty, pregnancy prevention and HIV and sexually transmitted infections, District 47 superintendent Lynn Glickman wrote in a letter to parents lsat month.

Families wishing to instead teach their kids about these topics at home can opt out of the program, Glickman said.

"Families will need to do this each year they wish to opt out. Illinois School Code and CCSD 46 Board Policy does allow for families to opt their children out of the sex education. Families must opt their children out in writing (can be via email) each year to the building principal," according to Glickman.

District 46, like many other school districts, has not historically taught sex education to its youngest students and therefore is not required to, and will not be adopting, national standards for sex education for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

District 46 students in those grades will continue to receive instruction on healthy eating choices; physical activity; making safe and healthy choices, including hand washing, limiting the spread of disease, bicycle safety; Erin's Law, which includes sexual abuse prevention; and what to do in the event of an emergency, including during a fire or inclement weather.

On the flip side, national standards call on teachers to instruct children in kindergarten through second grade on the medically appropriate name for genitals, the range of ways people express their gender identity and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior and discussion over reproduction and child sexual abuse.

By the end of fifth grade, under the national standards, children will learn more about puberty and basic human sexual development, including how hormones effect them. Discussion on pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases is also included in the curriculum.

"The curriculum using the new standards will not be taught in grades K-5," Glickman wrote in a letter to parents last month.

Additional information regarding the new standards can be found on the Illinois State Board of Education website.