With the furor still in full-swing over New Jersey’s new school standards on health and sex education, one state lawmaker said Tuesday he’ll introduce legislation intended to increase transparency and squash “misinformation and false claims.”
Schools would be required to post all curriculum to district websites two weeks before the start of the school year under a bill Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) said he will introduce this week.
The bill, which Gopal dubbed the “Transparency in Health & Sex Education Curriculum Act,” also would require school officials to give parents a chance to review and ask questions about new health and sex education curriculum before school boards approve it.
Gopal, who chairs the Senate’s Education Committee, said he will post the bill in committee as soon as the Legislature returns from its budget break on May 9.
Parents already are allowed, under a 1980 law, to opt their child out of sex education at school. Gopal’s bill would reiterate that right and require districts to explain online their opt-out process.
State education officials approved the new standards in June 2020, but critics have complained that too few people noticed because all attention was on the pandemic. Districts develop their own curriculum adhering to the new standards, and local school boards then must approve it. Schools are required to implement their new health and sex ed curriculum this fall.
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