On June 2, the Lower Kuskokwim School District Board made some changes to the district's sex education curriculum, but parents will be given notification before the changes happen. LKSD’s health curriculum will now include education on contraceptives, which prior Boards decided against including.
According to LKSD’s Carlton Kuhns, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Programs, it has taken a while to implement this policy decision to add information on contraceptives made several years ago by the current LKSD Board.
Two public health teams pushed for the inclusion of the additional information and wrote the contraceptives unit that includes four lesson plans.
“The first one is on ‘Abstinence Basics,’ said Kuhns. “The second lesson is ‘Birth Control Basics.’ The third lesson is ‘Partner Communication,’ and the fourth lesson is ‘Reliable Sources Of Information.’”
Kuhns said that the Board that also authorized Public Health Nurses to teach these lessons. He said that this is important, as it brings LKSD into compliance with new state statutes that say any personnel external to a school district must have School Board approval to teach sex ed.
Kuhns also said that part of the new statute stipulates that parents must be notified two weeks in advance so that they can have the choice of opting their kids out, should they wish to. How that notice is provided to parents, Kuhns said, will be decided on a school-by-school basis.