The Senate Education Committee will hear Senate Bill 1456 at their 2 p.m. meeting today that would require parents to opt in to sex education for their children with written permission, a significant change from the current opt-out procedure. Watch it live here.

“In Arizona, sex ed is currently an opt-out program and it is not mandatory, so any district has a choice to offer it and if they do offer it parents have to have the opportunity to opt out of it,” said Chris Kotterman, director of governmental relations with Arizona School Boards Association.

“Also the curriculum has to be approved through a rigorous process that’s outlined by the State Board of Education. Senate Bill 1456 does a few things to change that,” Kotterman said.

Senate Bill 1456, sponsored by Sen. Nancy Barto, also would require parents to be notified in advance of any learning materials or presentations regarding sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression in courses other than formal sex education curricula.

“If there’s any other discussion of those issues in any other context, it would arguably require the district or charter schools to get permission prior to, which sounds straightforward, but if you’re covering literature or the arts or a social issue in government class or whatever, you could run afoul of that,” Kotterman said. “It’s pretty restrictive in that regard.”

AZEdNews’ Legislative Legit: SB 1456 has parents opt in to sex ed for their children

Video edited by Jacquelyn Gonzales/ AZEdNews