FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a new, abstinence-based sex education curriculum for the district on Tuesday.
The curriculum, known as "Choosing the Best," will re-introduce sex education at Fort Worth schools, after the district suspended the teaching in January 2023. For the last year, a special advisory committee composed of parents and district health officials have analyzed potential lesson plans before recommending Choosing the Best.
Parents, students and other stakeholders debated the merits of the new curriculum for hours during sometimes-heated public testimony on the matter Tuesday night.
"An abstinence-centered approach just doesn't work," Arlington Heights High School student Hudson Harris told trustees. "Texas is second in the nation in STI cases, and we can consistently connect it to lack of proper curriculum."
"Sexual risk-avoidance curriculum emphasizes healthier choices and presents information with a person's best interest in mind," attendee Mary Smith later countered.
WFAA reviewed sample learning material provided by Choosing the Best's publisher.
Fort Worth students will discuss contraceptives, condoms and birth control, but the curriculum focuses mostly on their limitations to emphasize that abstinence is the only guaranteed way to avoid pregnancy.
Choosing the Best's website says its curriculum's goal is to "educate teens on the health advantages of delayed sexual activity and empower them to make the healthiest choices, in order to reduce unplanned pregnancies and STDs, improving life outcomes for teens and their families."
Sixth-graders will take six 45-minute classes using the material, including instruction on preventing sexual violence and identifying potential victims. They'll also learn about about "crushes, infatuations and true love through a fun-filled activity," the publisher's website indicates.
High school students will take eight 45-minute classes. Lessons will include the consequences of teen pregnancy and detail the experience of people living with sexually-transmitted infections.
The courses align with a Texas requirement that students enrolled in sex education courses understand "there are risks associated with sexual activity and that abstinence from sexual activity is the only 100% effective method to avoid risks.”
In correspondence with WFAA, the publisher noted Choosing the Best "covers contraception in exactly the manner that is required by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which require sexual education curricula to 'analyze the effectiveness and the risks and failure rates (human-use reality rates) of barrier protection (i.e. condoms) and other contraceptive methods, including how they work and may reduce the risk of STDs, STIs, and pregnancy.'"
Find an example of such instruction here.
The publisher emphasized the is abstinence-centered, not abstinence-only.
By law, parents must opt-in to sexual education courses for their children. In Fort Worth ISD last year, 3% of parents chose to bar their children from such instruction.
The curriculum's supporters argued Tuesday that the abstinence-based program is age-appropriate, morality-based and in line with state laws. Detractors argued that the curriculum doesn't go far enough and glosses over important sex concepts.
"You can call abstinence-based curriculum shameful hateful, shameful and self righteous," one supporter of the curriculum said. "The reality is, we are advocating that teenagers be responsible with their bodies to value morality and to put the power back in the hands of the parents.
"If you want to shield your child from sex ed, keep them locked up in your church or your expensive private school," said one speaker who opposed the curriculum. "But don't you dare impose your religious agenda on my grandchildren's sexual education."
Some students asked the material be available in Spanish. The publisher told WFAA Wednesday it would provide Spanish-language translations to Fort Worth ISD and any other district that requests them.
The district will use federal aid to purchase the lesson materials from Choosing the Best for about $72,000. It will supplement existing health curriculum provided by a different publisher, HealthSmart.
Fort Worth officials abandoned HealthSmart's sex education courses in 2023. Those lesson plans included more detailed discussion of contraceptives and their use, as well as lessons tailored for LGBTQ students.
Choosing the Best argues its curriculum applies to LGBTQ students, though analysts in other district's considering the curriculum have noted it only "identifies the heterosexual population."
The Fort Worth district has grappled with sex-related issues this school year. At the beginning of the year, in August, the district shut down all school libraries while it catalogued and reviewed books to see if they complied with a new state law that aimed to keep sexually explicit content from school bookshelves.
The district soon reopened the libraries, but kept more than 100 titles off the shelves as they continued reviewing the books.
"We are committed to having a safe and welcoming space for all students in our libraries," the district's interim library director, Ross Teller, told WFAA at the time. "We're just concentrating on ensuring we have the most welcoming inviting and appropriate collection available.