Changes could be coming to sexual health education in Alberta. Here's what we know
CBC
Late last month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a sweeping array of proposed changes that would affect transgender and non-binary youth.
Among those proposals is one that affects almost all 766,000 Kindergarten to Grade 12 students in Alberta.
Smith wants parents to opt students in to every lesson about sex education, sexual orientation or gender identity. The law right now requires one notification, and parents can opt out.
Alberta's Education Act requires school staff to give parents and guardians advance warning when a lesson, instructional material or exercise will deal "primarily and explicitly" with human sexuality or religion.
The former Progressive Conservative government gave parents and guardians the ability to opt children out of sex education and religion lessons in 2009.
Many other provinces allow parents to withdraw their children from such lessons.
A CBC News review of other provinces' policies found no other jurisdiction using an opt-in model.
The lessons are either mandatory, or parents and guardians must contact the school to remove the student. In B.C. and Manitoba, parents are responsible for ensuring students learn the material in another setting, such as at home or from a counsellor.
New Brunswick is considering giving parents the ability to remove students from sexual health lessons, by either an opt-in or opt-out model.
Lessons on consent start in Grade 1 in Alberta. Sexual health education addresses puberty changes in Grade 4, and dives into reproduction and birth control by Grade 6.
In junior high, students learn about body image, social influence, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections and their prevention, the influence of alcohol and safer sex.
The mandatory high-school class, Career and Life Management, covers relationships, values, decision-making, consent, pregnancy options and more.
The plan is to make lessons on sexual health, and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) opt-in and will require school staff to assume all students are excluded until they hear otherwise.
Also in policies announced Jan. 31, Smith said all third-party presenters and resources related to sexual health or SOGI "must be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure they are age-appropriate."
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