In Florida, where there is no statewide curriculum for sex education, students face a patchwork of standards as districts set their own policies.
State guidelines mandate abstinence be presented as the expected social standard as part of required health education.
Because Florida schools aren’t required to provide sex education specifically, school districts are left to decide what type of sex education they provide to students, if any.
In Alachua County, advocates say these gaps leave youth unprepared. Parents are discussing topics at home and community groups are stepping in to fill the void, offering crucial lessons schools skip over.
Daneila Mcvea-Smith, education program director of the Southeast and North Florida Planned Parenthood chapter, said a lack of state-mandated standards creates disparities between counties over what is taught to students.
“It leaves a lot of questions about what can and cannot be taught,” she said. “It has various holes throughout the state in different districts and us trying to figure out where to plug those holes in or what holes are missing.”
Community-based organizations like Planned Parenthood have begun to play that role in filling the gaps left by restrictive district policies by offering programs and resources directly to youth and students.
All Planned Parenthood programs available in Alachua County for students are for middle and high school-age youth, but are primarily targeted for high school students, Mcvea-Smith said.
If a school chooses to teach HIV/AIDS instruction, state mandates require it to emphasize the benefits of heterosexual marriage. Mcvea-Smith said this disproportionately affects LGBTQ+ youth by failing to provide them with information about topics such as birth control, STI prevention, domestic violence and human trafficking.
Local policies limiting sexual education affect public health outcomes, such as STIs and teen pregnancies, Mcvea-Smith said.
“People want to assume that youth are not engaging in sexual activity,” she said. “If these laws continue to make it more difficult for organizations to be able to teach … it could lead to increases in pregnancies and STIs, simply because youth are unaware.”
From 2020-2022, there were 306 reported teenage pregnancies in Alachua County. The teenage pregnancy rate in Alachua County is about 5 percentage points lower than the statewide average.
Michelle Grimsley Shandano, director of public policy of the Southeast and North Florida Planned Parenthood chapter, said the key is empowering youth, parents and community partners to work together to provide sexual education.
“We are now having to lean on the community to provide support and education in areas that historically parents were able to trust in the school systems to provide,” she said.
Grimsley Shandano said she feels it’s important for the community to take responsibility and
ownership in creating sex education stigmas. It’s more than knowing how to put a condom on or knowing how genitalia works, especially when school sex education curriculums are not explicitly required to include instruction on consent, she said.
Florida became the first state in the nation to teach K-12 child trafficking prevention courses. In the programs Planned Parenthood teaches, Grimsley Shandano said the information is vital.
“We do have youth in our programs that didn’t know they were in an abusive or human trafficking situation,” she said. “A lot of youth don’t know how to determine those situations or that they’re even in those situations.”
The CDC released the School Health Profiles in 2019, measuring school health policies and practices to highlight which topics were taught in schools across the country. Florida has not participated in the profile since 2020.
Although data was collected from self-administered questionnaires, which may lead to internal bias, the CDC identified many sexual health education topics critical to ensuring youth sexual health and presented them in a country-wide profile.
Holly Shema, a 38-year-old seventh-grade science teacher at Lincoln Middle School, said her classroom covers genetics and reproduction strictly from a scientific perspective. Her pacing guides only allow her one week to teach sexual and asexual reproduction, she said.
Her curriculum no longer touches on human reproduction. Years ago, she spent two to three weeks on human reproduction, and could send out consent forms to parents, she said.
The topics she used to cover discussed the male and female reproductive systems and contraception. When she taught these subjects, Shema said she never used models or demonstrations, and parents reviewed the information she would use beforehand.
“I would do the egg baby project with them,” she said. “Cook all the little eggs, and then they have to take care of it and talk about the impacts of teenage pregnancy.”
Although sixth-grade science now covers body and reproductive systems, Shema said it’s not a main focus. Additionally, high school anatomy classes aren’t required for graduation, she said.
Shema said she faced challenges approaching a sensitive curriculum with students, especially when she did not split them up by gender in an effort to create a more inclusive space, she said.
“Once you’re in middle school, you’re like ‘Oh, I have a boyfriend, I have a girlfriend,’” she said. “It’s important that you know what the other sex has to go through.”
Last school year was the first year Shema decided to not teach human reproduction, citing she had too many parents “questioning and complaining,” she said.
Shema said she feels frustrated with how “rigid” teaching has become, which limits her ability to teach sex education. She also said she’s afraid of getting in trouble due to many statewide policies restricting what she can teach, such as House Bill 1557 (2022), or the “Don’t say gay” law.
“We need to be following and doing exactly what the county says and when the county says we should be there,” she said. “Adding in additional programs to help teach kids about being a better, more well-rounded person are getting pushed to the side.”
She said her role used to fill an educational gap, especially when parents were unwilling or unable to have these discussions. Without proper or comprehensive sex education, Shema said she worries students might go to the wrong places for information, including internet search engines.
“Having someone who is actually knowledgeable and wants the best for your kid, and isn’t going to try to sway your kid one way or the other in keeping it strictly scientific, honestly is probably one of the better options to have,” she said. “Compared to your kids learning from their friends, on their own or on the internet.”
Erika Barahona, a 36-year-old biology teacher at Buchholz High School, said she spends one week teaching the scientific function of reproductive organs but doesn’t teach sex education.
She said she feels the sex education taught in schools does not prepare students to make informed decisions about their health, she said.
“We don’t talk about reproductive health or anything to that effect,” she said. “I think it’s important to create awareness.”
Barahoma said she wishes students were taught about STIs, healthy relationships, abuse and consent. If students ask about gender identity or sexual orientation, she is hesitant to answer due to pressure from state policies, she said.
“I do maintain a welcoming environment in my classroom,” she said. “Especially with all the laws that are going on, I don’t really answer them. I’m not in a position to talk to them about that.”
Kristin Hocter, a 31-year-old Gainesville resident and parent of two Lake Forest Elementary school students, said her household is “pretty open and honest.”
She said an approach to sexual education at an elementary level should entail basic anatomy, personal boundaries and LGBTQ+ relationships, so it’s not a “hush-hush” thing.
“It’s so important,” she said, “to keep kids safe, to make it a discussion and just keep it appropriate. Talk to them about it so they’re not uncomfortable, there shouldn’t be any shame around it.”
Caitlin Arner, a 41-year-old Gainesville resident and parent of two, said she “talks about everything” with her children, noting it encourages openness and dedication to their curiosity.
Creating open conversations about sex in her house covers everything from basic biology to pop culture, especially with her older child, she said.
Maclin Dameron, a 10-year-old Williams Elementary student and Arner’s son, said it’s “extremely important” to talk about sex education.
Emlyn Arner, an 18-year-old Eastside High School senior and Caitlyn’s daughter, said she feels prepared to make informed decisions about her sexual health from what her mom has taught her.
“I’ve been taught safe sex since basically I had a brain to think,” she said. “I’ve been lucky my mom has supported me enough to help me get birth control.”
Emlyn said she tries to be an educator for her friends at school, including teaching them about birth control methods. Several of her friends made appointments after their conversation, she said.
As a teenager herself, Emlyn said it’s impossible to not expect a teenager to explore themselves sexually or have sexual relationships with other people.
“It’s a part of growing up,” she said. “These are really big topics, and I don’t think students really get that.”
Contact Sara-James Ranta at sranta@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sarajamesranta.
Sara-James Ranta is a third-year journalism major, minoring in sociology of social justice and policy. Previously, she served as a general assignment reporter for The Alligator's university desk.
