Changes to TUSD's sex education curriculum moved closer to final approval Tuesday night, going on a 13-day review period.
The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to post changes to the Family Life Curriculum on Aug. 1. The board is set to vote on them Aug. 13.
The changes include medically and scientifically accurate information, healthy familial and peer relationships, self-empowerment, interpersonal behaviors, and positive self-esteem and body image, Charlotte Patterson, director of TUSD's school community services, said in a presentation Tuesday.
It’s important that students feel good about how they identify and that they should not feel threatened or bullied, she said.
“What’s important is to make sure our kids grow into healthy adults who are good decision makers and feel good about themselves,” Patterson said.
Designing a curriculum that’s medically accurate has been challenging because people can’t agree on what’s medically accurate, said Bernadette Gruber, a member of the advisory committee updating the curriculum.
“To avoid parents opting out and missing those good nuggets that we have spent a lot of time on, I would encourage you to remove those controversial items,” she said to the board.
The sex education classes are opt-in only, with alternatives for students who don’t want to take the classes. The class is offered every year in fourth through eighth grades and once in high school.
The change to the curriculum is four years in the making. A committee chosen by the board, which convened in March, reviewed and modified the curriculum, which was first adopted in 1996 and updated in 2006.
Committee members have said the curriculum seeks to be more inclusive to LGBTQ students and families. The district held a number of public meetings about the changes, which have stirred controversy. One of the curriculum changes is that language used in the classes would be more gender-neutral, as a way to include students whose gender is non-binary.
Adopting a curriculum, which sets performance standards and objectives, isn’t subject to public review, but adopting instructional resources and textbooks is subject to a 60-day public review period and two public hearings before lessons are finalized and taught in the classroom, according to Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.
The district hasn’t yet identified textbooks.
Board members Mark Stegeman and Rachael Sedgwick both advocated for a 60-day review period for the curriculum recommendations.
Spending 60 days to review the curriculum alone was unreasonable, said Board Member Leila Counts.
“If we take 60 days at this point to just look at scope and sequence, that is holding up the entire process,” she said.
After approval, the curriculum will be adopted this fall, according to district spokeswoman Karla Escamilla.
Only high schoolers will take the class in the fall, and the rest of the grades will have it in the spring, Escamilla said.
