Revised Sex Ed Curriculum Adopted In Ocean City Schools

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Ahead of the upcoming school year, the Ocean City Board of Education has announced its adoption of an "age-appropriate" amended health and physical education curriculum.

Over the past few months, the 2020 Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards have drawn attention and controversy among parents who believe that the subject matter, including teaching younger children proper names and identification of genitals and gender differences, to be inappropriate for students. You can find the standards online here.

While public schools are required to teach health curriculum according to state standards, the way these are taught is up to the district's discretion.

On Aug. 24, at the Board of Education meeting, the Board adopted revised standards that meet the minimum requirements for age-appropriate teaching, while still respecting the community's families and encouraging collaboration with parents, the Board announced in a news release.

“We amended our health and physical education curriculum with a team of teachers and administrators with the goal of compliance with the minimum requirements,” said OCSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matthew Friedman. “We made revisions in a thoughtful manner and want our school families to be involved.”

The amended curriculum and supporting documents will be posted on the OCSD website in September for parents to review. In the meantime, the Board of Education said that teachers are preparing lessons to meet these goals in an age-appropriate manner.

“Parents have always and will always play an important role in supporting their child’s learning and health,” said Dr. Lauren Gunther, OCSD Director of Student Services. “We’ve recognized that in our values here at Ocean City and genuinely want parents to be a collaborative part of the health and physical education curriculum and teaching process throughout their child’s years in Ocean City Schools.”

Ocean City School District follows District Policy 5250: Health and Physical Education, which states, “Any student whose parent presents to the principal a signed statement that any part of the instruction in health, family life education, or sex education is in conflict with his/her conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs shall be excused from that portion of the course where such instruction is being given and no penalties as to credit or graduation shall result.”

This means that parents can opt-out their children from certain parts of the program. Those interested can submit a signed statement to the school's principal. Opted-out students will be in a different, supervised location during specific lessons and given alternate assignments.

“We respect every parent’s personal choices concerning their child’s health education,” said Dr. Patrick Kane, OCSD Board of Education President. “Although we will assure lessons are planned in an age-appropriate manner, parents can always opt-out of a specific part of the health curriculum. The opt-out option exemplifies our commitment to collaborate with our Ocean City families and we will continue to provide that option as education evolves.”

Each school will hold parent meetings regarding the health program during September. Parents will receive information about these meetings when they get closer, but can check the district website for dates and times when they are posted.