News

Ohio Senate Considering Bill on Sex Education Standards

By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Tuesday, December 3, 2019

< < Back to ohio-senate-considering-bill-on-sex-education-standards

Ohio lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow the state’s education department to set health and sex education standards for K-12 schools. But it is meeting opposition from conservative groups.

Ohio law mandates that abstinence be taught in K-12 schools as the preferred education policy. But Brian Yusko with the Ohio Association of Colleges for Teacher Education says it lacks something important.

“Ohio is the only state that does not have a set of health education standards,” Yusko said.

But Linda Harvey with Mission America says individual schools are already teaching national sex-ed programs that she says recommend immoral and unsafe sexual activities.

“This bill seems to give a wink and a nod to more of this,” Harvey said.

A Senate committee is set to consider the bill for the fourth time. If it passes there, it could come up for a vote in that chamber before the end of this year.