All students deserve access to comprehensive sex education. The DSHN staff at SexEdVA highly recommend additional guidelines for choosing comprehensive educational resources so that students can access information to make informed decisions about healthy and fulfilling romantic and sexual relationships. Students should be able to access information on identity, healthy relationships, affirmative consent, healthcare, STI prevention, pregnancy prevention, and methods of protection that are medically-accurate and non-judgmental.
In the current guidelines, a student or parent may opt out of this discussion entirely. We encourage instead that young people and their families be directed to resources for conducting these conversations in safe and inviting ways rather than allowing the first step to be to opt out. We recognize that talking about sexual health can be uncomfortable or unfamiliar and that is all the more reason to talk about it.