Boston Globe | Here’s what’s in Healey’s proposed new sex ed framework

By Alysa Guffey
Story Originally Appeared in the Boston Globe

As states across the country are passing strict legislation to keep discussions on human sexuality out of classrooms, Massachusetts political leaders are pushing for schools to initiate the conversation.

Governor Maura Healey on Wednesday unveiled a draft proposal to update the state’s health and physical education framework for the first time since 1999 to incorporate a “modern understanding” of health and wellness into the curriculum.

In a press release, Healey’s administration said the bill is “LGBTQ+ inclusive, medically accurate, and developmentally and age appropriate” and covers LGBTQ+ health and wellness, mental and emotional health, personal safety, bodily autonomy, dating safety, violence prevention, physical health and hygiene, nutritionally balanced eating, physical activity, substance use disorder, and public, community, and environmental health.

“All of our students benefit when they learn from up-to-date, evidence-based material grounded in science,” Healey said in a statement Wednesday morning. “These new guidelines will empower students with the skills they need to build healthy lives in school and beyond.”

Such education frameworks can aid children in a country that has seen recent attacks on health care, said Taylor St. Germain, communications director at Reproductive Equity Now.

“We talk a lot about how our reproductive life cycles our entire life, and that includes starting in schools with sexual education, it includes making sure that students have honest and accurate education to help them,” St. Germain said.

Massachusetts lags behind other states in requirements and quality of sex education, according to a 2022 report by SIECUS, which studies sexuality and sex education in schools nationally. The report accredited the state’s mandates on “some healthy relationship education” but noted its lack of sexand HIV education.

The agency gave Massachusetts no marks for age-appropriate, evidence-based, or medically accurate standards for education on sex, HIV, or healthy relationships. Only sex education received a mark for culturally appropriate standards.

Notable updates in Healey’s proposed framework include LGBTQ+ inclusive teaching standards on social awareness, self-awareness, and information seeking on gender and sexual health. The new requirements for state standards are split into four grade spans.

If the framework passes, students in pre-K through second grade will discuss gender-role stereotypes and their potential impacts on people of all genders. Falling under a subcategory for healthy relationships, students will also “demonstrate awareness of, and ways to show respect for, all types of families,” including heterosexual, same-gender, single-parent, intergenerational, adoptive, and foster families.

Differences between biological sex and gender identity would be introduced in Grades 3 to 5, along with explanations of how one’s appearance does not define their gender identity or sexual orientation. In these years, students would also learn about reproductive anatomy and sexual intercourse.

The framework says HIV and sexually transmitted diseases would be introduced in Grades 6 to 8. Teachings would also explain that attractions “can be romantic, emotional, and/or sexual to an individual of the same gender and/or a different gender(s) and that attractions can change over time.” Schools should also address and discourage bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the framework says.

High school students will be encouraged to determine the role of personal views about gender, sexual identity, and sexual health, and discuss how to foster inclusiveness around issues relating to such topics.

Several Massachusetts education leaders praised Healey for her commitment to update and ensure appropriate health education.

“Our education system is still recovering from the lasting impacts of the pandemic, and this new framework will provide students and educators access to modern, scientifically-backed practices for achieving mental and physical health,” Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said in the Healey administration’s press release.

The Health Youth Coalition, composed of young people, educators, healthcare professionals, sexual and domestic violence prevention experts, and advocates for LGBTQ+ health and well-being, celebrated the introduction of the draft Wednesday.

Co-chair of the coalition Jamie Klufts said the framework “will bring health education into the 21st century.”

“A framework like this one shifts our culture,” Klufts said. “And it allows our schools to really be a partner to families and parents.”

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will address the draft at its regular meeting next Tuesday, where after a presentation, the board will vote on sending it out for public comment. If it passes, the public will have 60 days to give feedback on the draft before the board votes again for adoption. After the public comment period is closed, the board could revise the draft and vote on implementing the new framework, likely later this summer or in the fall.

While the framework is extensive, implementation will be left up to schools.

“School districts have discretion to determine how the standards will be implemented at the local level,” Jeffrey C. Riley, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said in the release. “We hope the framework will be a resource of lasting value for schools and districts.”

Carrie Richgels, manager of policy and advocacy at Fenway Health, praised this “first step” toward an inclusive curriculum.

Healey’s description of the framework covers much of the same ground and language as legislation aimed at updating schools’ approaches to sex education, a bill that has died several sessions in a row in the Massachusetts House.

In the past decade, the Senate has passed the “Healthy Youth Act” four times to remodel sex education, to teach students about human anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, effective use of contraceptives, dating violence, and gender and sexual identity.

It has repeatedly died in the House, though its longtime House sponsor Representative Jim O’Day said last month that he felt with a governor more friendly to the idea in the corner office, that the bill might get off the ground this session.

Through Healey’s proposal and the board vote, the new framework would not need to pass through the Legislature. House Speaker Ron Mariano was not present at Wednesday’s press conference in the State House Library, which Representatives O’Day and Sean Garballey attended.

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.