Parental choice in Human Growth & Development curriculum

Parents always have choice in and access to Human Growth and Development Curriculum. CFSD has opted to teach a sex education curriculum entitled Human Growth and Development. This curriculum was last reviewed in its entirety in 2015 and has been revised in accordance with changes in state law since then in 2019 (response to revision of curriculum guidance related to HIV instruction) and in 2021 (reorganization into 5th grade curriculum and removal from 4th grade curriculum).

In a full revision, the Governing Board not only approves the benchmarks, but also actively approves each lesson at each grade level. Further, each Board member is tasked with reviewing each of the materials proposed for use in the curriculum prior to adoption. The District also held two public hearings prior to the Board’s final vote on the matter, as is required by state law.

In Arizona, Human Growth and Development education is an “opt-in” program. Parents must opt their children into the curriculum, in writing, for each year of instruction. The District provides an alternative course of study for those students whose parents opt out of the instruction. Further, parents must specifically opt in to the HIV/AIDS portion of the Human Growth and Development curriculum.

All program materials and lessons in the Human Growth and Development program are available for parent review PRIOR to a student participating in the lessons. Individual school administrators are only too happy to assist parents in any review of the materials they wish to perform.

Great care is exercised in CFSD to comply with the spirit and letter of the law surrounding sex education and to preserve parental control over the delivery of sex education to their children. The goal of the District is to provide age-appropriate, medically accurate information to our students in grades 5-9, in part as a counterbalance to the sometimes inaccurate or distorted information they are exposed to via the media and the internet.