Dallas ISD debates sex education lessons focused on reducing teen pregnancy

Dallas ISD leaders are considering new sex education lessons at a time when the way Texas schools teach about gender and sexuality is under a microscope.

Students would learn how to prevent pregnancies through contraceptives and about gender identity if school trustees adopt the expanded materials on May 26.

The debate comes as conservatives challenge how topics such as sexuality and gender identity are broached in schools while progressives worry about the rippling effect overturning Roe vs. Wade will have.

Members of the district’s health committee who brought forward the new sexual health recommendations told DISD trustees at a Thursday board briefing that access to more information promotes better sexual health for students.

“It encourages healthy relationships where both parties are respected,” said Meaders Ozarow, who served on the committee. “It reduces abuse; it reduces sexual trafficking; it reduces sexual violence; and it delays sexual activity.”

But a few community members criticized the proposal, saying it was inappropriate.

One mother of a Dallas preschooler said she was concerned specifically about potential lessons that referenced sexual reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.

“This is confusing,” the parent said. “I do not want my child learning this at school.”

The district’s School Health Advisory Committee, or SHAC, spent months picking new materials Dallas teachers can use when educating students about sexual and reproductive health. The State Board of Education revised Texas’ standards for health lessons in 2020 – the first major update since 1997 – spurring DISD to consider new textbooks and instructional materials.

The state board only recommended one publisher’s materials for school districts to use, but Dallas ISD officials felt they needed to search for additional options.

Related:Texas board adopts sex ed material but rejects health textbooks for elementary students

SHAC members reviewed potential teaching materials submitted to the district and concluded that DISD needed curriculum from multiple publishers so that lessons were appropriate, committee parent co-chair Jeana Foxman said.

Sixth graders and up would learn about reproductive and sexual health through materials from publisher McGraw Hill while using lessons from publisher Goodheart-Willcox to cover a range of other health instruction, including from nutrition to family violence.

Some SHAC members preferred McGraw Hill because it offered a more comprehensive understanding of birth control.

“While I am thoroughly pro-abstinence, I do know that children don’t always do as we wish,” one SHAC member said, according to meeting minutes. “The McGraw Hill Curriculum did a better job of educating from a scientific point of view.”

Another commented that McGraw Hill both met the minimum state standards and offered additional information necessary for instructing students in a “large and broad school district.”

Because of a new state law, parents must opt-in for their students to receive the sexual health lessons, district staff emphasized. Still, some community members spoke against the McGraw Hill curriculum – which did not seek SBOE approval – at the Thursday meeting.

Lori Kuykendall, who served on state advisory committees revising health standards, criticized Dallas ISD’s committee for choosing materials from McGraw Hill, which were not vetted by the state.

She also implored trustees to backtrack on a proposed partnership with the North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens, which would provide afterschool programming for high schoolers.

Related:Five things to know about sex education in Texas, and the recent fight over instructional materials

District officials said parents and principals would need to opt in for this programming to be available.

The last time Dallas updated its sexual health curriculum was in 2019. At the time, the board approved expanding sexual health lessons to be incorporated in core science classes starting at the end of sixth grade rather than only in health classes taught in later years of middle school.

While Texas has statewide standards for what’s taught, school districts can go further than what is explicitly spelled out. Local school health committees also have the power to recommend appropriate grade levels and instruction for human sexuality instruction.

Officials cited Dallas’ historically high teen pregnancy rates during the 2019 debate as a reason to expand the lessons here. Trustee Dustin Marshall noted on Thursday that Dallas County still struggles to bring those numbers down. It has the highest teen birth rate of the top 20 largest counties in the country, according to the North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens.

“We recognized back then, almost unanimously, that the teen pregnancy rate in Dallas is astronomical,” Marshall said before encouraging his fellow trustees to vote for the recommended curriculum. “We have got to do a better job of educating our kids about sexual health and about contraception.”

He added that the curriculum being considered this year is “less explicit” than the lessons approved years ago.

If families decide to opt out of the sexual health curriculum, their children will partake in alternate lessons related to health, noted Chief Academic Officer Shannon Trejo.

State law requires parents have a minimum of 14 days notice prior to schools offering the sexual health instruction.

“We’re going to be working very hard to ensure that our parents understand they have the right to opt in, and that they must opt in in order to receive instruction,” Trejo said.

Parents will have the opportunity to review materials online prior to lessons, she added.

Trustee Joe Carreón encouraged staff to closely track the opt-in rates with a special eye toward families of students learning English because of concerns around access to the information. Board members wanted to ensure parents understand their options while making decisions.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Todd A. Williams Family Foundation and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.