Sex/HIV Education Policy - Kaiser State Health Facts

State Sex and STD/HIV Education Policy, as of January 1, 2010

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	Mandates Sex Education?	Notes on Sex Education Mandates	Mandates STD/HIV Education?	Notes on STD/HIV Education Mandates

United States	22+DC Yes	NA	35+DC Yes	NA

Alabama	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
Alaska	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements
Arizona	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence
Arkansas	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence
California	No	If taught voluntarily, must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
Colorado	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence and cover contraception	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence
Connecticut	No	If taught voluntarily, must cover abstinence	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
Delaware	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
District of Columbia	Yes	Must cover contraception	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
Florida	Yes	Must cover abstinence	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
Georgia	Yes	Must cover abstinence	Yes	Must cover abstinence
Hawaii	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
Idaho	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements
Illinois	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence1	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence and cover contraception1
Indiana	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Iowa	Yes	No state-specific content requirements	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
Kansas	Yes	No state-specific content requirements	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
Kentucky	Yes	Must cover abstinence	Yes	Must cover abstinence
Louisiana	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence
Maine	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
Maryland	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
Massachusetts	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state specific content requirements
Michigan	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Minnesota	Yes	No state-specific content requirements	Yes	Must cover abstinence
Mississippi	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence2	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence2
Missouri	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence.	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Montana	Yes	Must cover abstinence	Yes	Must cover abstinence
Nebraska	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements
Nevada	Yes	No state-specific content requirements	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
New Hampshire	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	Yes	Must cover abstinence
New Jersey	Yes	No state-specific content requirements	Yes	No state-specific content requirements
New Mexico	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
New York	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
North Carolina	Yes	Must stress abstinence3	Yes	Must stress abstinence3
North Dakota	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements
Ohio	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Oklahoma	No	Must stress abstinence	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
Oregon	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
Pennsylvania	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Rhode Island	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
South Carolina	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
South Dakota	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements4	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements4
Tennessee	Yes	Must stress abstinence	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Texas	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence
Utah	Yes	Must stress abstinence5	Yes	Must stress abstinence5
Vermont	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
Virginia	No	If taught voluntarily, must cover abstinence and contraception	No	If taught voluntarily, must cover abstinence and contraception
Washington	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence and cover contraception	Yes	Must stress abstinence and cover contraception
West Virginia	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception	Yes	Must cover abstinence and contraception
Wisconsin	No	If taught voluntarily, must stress abstinence	Yes	Must stress abstinence
Wyoming	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements	No	If taught voluntarily, there are no state-specific content requirements

(show/hide notes)

Notes:	Data as of January 1, 2010.
Sources:	Sex and STD/HIV Education, State Policies in Brief, Guttmacher Institute, January 1, 2010. Available at: http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_SE.pdf.
Definitions:	STD: Sexually Transmitted Diseases NA: Not applicable.
Footnotes:	Illinois has a broad set of laws mandating general health education, including abstinence; a more specific second law requires a school district that provides sex education to stress abstinence and to provide statistics on the efficacy of condoms as HIV/STD prevention. Localities may override state requirements for sex education topics, including abstinence; state prohibits including material that "contradicts the required component". A state law, which will go into effect for the 2010-11 school year, requires contraception be "covered." Abstinence is taught within state-mandated character education. State prohibits teachers from responding to students' spontaneous questions in ways that conflict with the law's requirements.

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