Miami-Dade School Board rejected sex-ed textbook. What now?
Before the Miami-Dade School Board voted Wednesday whether to adopt a sexual education textbook for middle and high school students, district officials warned that rejecting it could leave the district unable to meet state requirements.
“If these materials aren’t adopted and no other materials are adopted, we would not be able to certify that this unit of study was taught,” Lourdes Diaz, chief academic officer, told the board before it voted 5-4 to reject the textbook. “When we report on all of the required units of study, we would have to indicate that this one was not taught this year,” referring to the 2022-23 school year.
Each year, the district certifies that topics are taught. Districts are required to offer lessons on reproductive health or diseases, but parents are able to opt out.
The board’s vote effectively leaves the district without the required materials for at least four to eight months of the coming school year.
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Chairperson Perla Tabares Hantman, Marta Perez, Mari Tere Rojas, Lubby Navarro and Christi Fraga voted against the book. Many of them cited inappropriate content for students. Vice Chair Steve Gallon, along with Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, Lucia Baez-Geller and Luisa Santos voted to adopt the book.
There is, however, an opportunity for the board to meet next year’s June 30 deadline to submit its requirements: If the district is able to adopt a textbook “at some point during the course of the year,” certain students would be able to receive the lessons in the middle or toward the end of the year, officials said.
What happens next?
Following the board’s vote, the district may have to begin the review and adoption process again, which could take months, and it’s unclear when the new adoption process would commence.
That process may require the district to convene a new instructional material review committee to review textbook options and make recommendations to district officials.
The selection would also require the School Board to conduct a public hearing to invite public comment, provide public access to the materials and hold a separate public meeting to approve or adopt the materials under consideration, according to School Board policy.
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For the upcoming school year, teachers would simply skip the unit of study until the materials are adopted.
Prior to the vote, board member Santos said: “As a board, instead of having an opt out, we will be opting out everyone in the following school year.”
Repercussions are unclear
Currently, there are no sexual education materials in the district, as they were in the review and adoption process, Superintendent Jose Dotres said Wednesday.
The district had hoped to approve the materials that were ultimately rejected, Diaz said.
The district reported to the state that it did not meet the June 30 requirement, but it has not received any information back from the state.
The Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request Thursday inquiring about the possible consequences for the district failing to offer required instructional materials.
The consequences are clearer for students, as the lessons are not a graduation requirement, officials said.
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How we got here?
In April, the School Board approved the sexual education book “Comprehensive Health Skills,” which comes with a version for middle school and one for high school classes and offers research-based health education with topics such as nutrition, physical activity and sexually transmitted diseases.
The book would have addressed the district’s units of study for Human Reproduction and Disease Education for grades six through 12, but came under attack by a group of parents, some of whom do not have children in Miami-Dade public schools.
County Citizens Defending Freedom, formed in October, filed a petition that claimed the book wasn’t age appropriate and violated the state’s newly enacted parental rights law. It made similar claims in Polk County.
The petition, which included 278 signatures, triggered an independent review process by a hearing officer appointed by Dotres. At a hearing June 8, just a handful of petitioners raised their concerns.
The officer recommended the School Board adopt the materials, but the board overrode that.
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 8:38 PM.
