CHPPR and Healthy Futures of Texas Collaborate to Evaluate Impact of Opt-In Sexual Health Education Policy in Texas

Healthy Futures of Texas is a non-partisan, non-profit organization working to help young Texans access quality sexual health education, contraception and sexual healthcare, and other resources. The organization advocates for policy improvements at the local, state, and national levels, develops health education curricula, hosts trainings and other events for parents and youth-serving professionals, and gathers and provides access to critical data around teen birth rates and adolescent health.

CHPPR investigators and Healthy Futures of Texas collaborated to conduct a first-of-its-kind evaluation of a diverse, bipartisan sample of Texas school representatives to determine the impacts of Texas’s new sex education opt-in law, which requires written parental consent for sex education or abuse prevention instruction. A majority of respondents in the evaluation viewed the law as a barrier to successful sexual health and abuse prevention education.

“Texas parents tell us that they want schools to be partners in making sure young people have the information they need to stay safe and healthy,” said Jen Biundo, Senior Director of Research and Policy at Healthy Futures of Texas. “Parents used to be able to opt their children out of sex education. But the shift to requiring active written consent means that many students are missing out on this important instruction not because their parents are opposed to the content, but just because they miss the paperwork.”

Ms. Biundo, along with Melissa Peskin, PhD and Belinda Hernandez, PhD of UTHealth Houston, recently hosted a webinar discussing how school districts can use UTHealth Houston’s iCHAMPSS decision support tool to address some of these challenges and implement effective sexual health curriculum. You can view a recording of the presentation, “Untangling the new Texas sexual health landscape with online decision support,” online here.