Curriculum choices can influence teen pregnancy rates, sexually transmitted infection rates, and students' knowledge of health resources, though researchers debate how much schools alone shape these outcomes.
It's a school curriculum that teaches students about both abstinence and contraception, along with topics like puberty, healthy relationships, and preventing sexually transmitted infections.
Decisions about what children learn regarding sexuality touch on questions about parental authority, religious values, and the role of public institutions in personal matters.
Each state legislature, and often local school boards, determine whether sex education is required and what it must include. There is no federal mandate dictating specific content.
The federal government funds both approaches through separate programs: Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education supports abstinence-focused curricula, while the Personal Responsibility Education Program supports curricula covering contraception.
A look at how sex education is taught in U.S. public schools, who decides, and what the evidence shows.
Read the guide →States and school districts are divided over whether to mandate curricula that cover contraception, consent and sexual health alongside abstinence.
Read the brief →