New Standards Aim to Guide Sex Education

Overview & Synopsis

This article reports on national standards about sexuality, sexual health, and relationships that outline topics students should learn, starting in kindergarten, and that they can build on as they grow older. The standards--an initiative by groups concerned with student health and sex education--are intended to mimic content standards for other subjects, which introduce concepts early in school, based on children's ability to understand them, and then add to them grade by grade until graduation. The groups releasing "National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K-12" are the American Association for Health Education, the American School Health Association, the National Education Association Health Information Network, and the Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education. National health and education groups say the standards are the minimum students should know about sexual and relationship health in grades K-12.