UPDATED August 2 with new TEA guidance.
Texas schools no longer require parents’ approval before teachers expose their children to sex education.
A state law requiring parents to “opt in” for students to participate in sex ed at school expires on August 1.
Instead, parents must now “opt out” or else their kids will automatically see whatever sexual information teachers present in the classroom.
Each school district decides what, if any, human sexuality instruction is offered to students.
Elected school board trustees make the final decision, based on recommendations from a board-appointed Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC).
State law still requires school officials to notify parents about the district’s sex ed curriculum and to make the material available for public inspection.
Caryl Ayala, a former Austin elementary school teacher who founded Concerned Parents of Texas, notes that parents have the right to know what is being taught and to remove their child without consequences.
Ayala created an opt-out form that parents can use.
“My hope is that discerning parents do not give in to blind trust, peer pressure, and apathy,” Ayala said. “We should all know without any doubt that the instruction that is being provided is exactly what our child needs at that time in his/her life.”
On Thursday, the Texas Education Agency quietly released updated guidance to school administrators recommending that districts should keep adhering to the expired parental opt-in requirement.
Notwithstanding expiration of the statutory opt-in mandate, school systems should continue requiring parental consent prior to offering human sexuality instruction to students, which is fully permitted by the authority granted to local school systems under TEC, §11.151.
Last year, the Texas Senate passed legislation to make mandatory parental consent for sex ed permanent, but the House failed to vote on the measure before the regular session ended.
Tara Petsch, Texas Ambassador for Moms for Liberty, called lawmakers’ failure to fix the opt-in requirement “disappointing” but said her group is asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call “a very quick special session” to eliminate the expiration date.
“It is literally one sentence,” she said.
“We have also encouraged our school board to enact their own local board policy stating that sex education will always be opt in and require parental consent, and we encourage parents across Texas to do the same,” Petsch told Texas Scorecard.
She added, “It is a parent’s right and responsibility to determine when to talk to their children about sex, not government schools.”
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