Provides that any school teaching sexual education to students shall provide the sexual education curriculum to every parent or guardian of a student, and the parent or legal guardian shall consent to the teaching of such sexual education curriculum.

Plain-English Summary

This Rhode Island bill would require schools to share their sex education curriculum materials with parents or guardians before teaching that content to students. Under the proposal, schools would need to provide the full curriculum — not just a general description — to every parent or guardian whose child would be receiving that instruction.

The bill also adds a consent requirement, meaning schools would need to get approval from a parent or legal guardian before a student participates in sex education. This goes beyond the "opt-out" system that many schools currently use, where parents must actively request that their child be excluded. Instead, this would create an "opt-in" system, where parents must actively agree before their child can participate.

This bill would affect all public school students in Rhode Island who are enrolled in classes that include sexual education, as well as their parents or guardians. Schools and teachers would also be affected, as they would need to take additional steps to distribute materials and collect consent before delivering this type of instruction. Students whose parents or guardians do not respond or do not give consent would presumably not participate in the sex education portion of the curriculum.

The bill has been introduced and referred to the Senate Education Committee, which means it is in the early stages of the legislative process and has not yet been voted on.