Sex Education Policy

In 2004, FPA initiated the Get the Facts NY Campaign to raised awareness about the importance of providing comprehensive, medically accurate sex education in New York schools and communities. Over the years the Campaign grew into a coalition of more than 250 organizations who support efforts to ensure all New York youth have access to the information and resources they need to keep themselves safe and healthy.

While NYS mandates health education for all students, which must include information on HIV/AIDs, there is no requirement for sex education. Therefore, whether or not a young person received sex education (and what that information contains) varies across the state.  In 2005, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried introduced the Healthy Teens Act (HTA), legislation that would create a competitive grant program to fund sex education programs in schools and communities. Over the past 6 years, HTA has passed with bi-partisan support in the New York State Assembly. However, HTA has not come to a vote in the state Senate. Now, given the current economic situation, funding a new grant program is not feasible.

FPA and its coalition partners are developing a new approach to fulfilling our goal of sex ed for all youth. This includes:

• Efforts to share approved, evidence-based sex education curriculum with the New York State Education Department and with teachers for use in K-12 classrooms.
• Establishing state-wide policy requiring the curriculum for any school teaching sex education, to be comprehensive, age-appropriate and medically accurate.
• Advocating for the inclusion of comprehensive, age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education in the K-12 learning standards currently under review by the New York State Education Department.