Comprehensive sex education and HIV education are critical for young people to be able to understand their bodies and make informed decisions about their health and relationships. To be considered comprehensive, education on sex and HIV should be medically accurate, age-appropriate, inclusive and culturally responsive. However, states take widely divergent approaches to providing sex and HIV education.
Most US states have policies on sex education or instruction about HIV and AIDS, either established by statute or in state Department of Education standards. Some states provide only guidelines instead of legally enforceable requirements, and even legal requirements do not guarantee that young people will have access to comprehensive education around sex and HIV. In many states, these topics are becoming increasingly politicized as part of an escalating campaign against youth access to sexual and reproductive health services.
The quality and content of sex and HIV education vary greatly from state to state. While some states strive to meet some or all standards for comprehensive education, others have established potentially harmful requirements for the types of information that can be shared. For instance, some states require that sex education include evidence-based instruction on topics such as contraception and pregnancy, while others promote ineffective and harmful instruction such as "abstinence only" education. Likewise, some states require sex and HIV education to be inclusive, while others require instruction that stigmatizes LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. In several states, “Don’t Say Gay” policies prohibit classroom discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation entirely or for certain grades. Furthermore, definitions of “medically accurate” instruction vary by state and may in some cases include outdated or inaccurate information.
In addition to implementing requirements around the content of sex and HIV education, many states have policies mandating parental involvement, either requiring parents to consent to the instruction for their child or requiring schools to notify parents that their child will be receiving such instruction. Some states allow parents to opt their child out of these education programs altogether.