Release Date: April 30, 2009

Schools are an integral provider of service and support to parents throughout the academic lives of their children. Parents rely on the school system to partner with them as they endeavor to raise their children to adulthood safely and with the knowledge and skills necessary to live healthy, productive lives. A key area in which parents expect schools to provide information and expertise is in the provision of health education, particularly age-appropriate sex education. It is estimated that in a typical Orange County class of 500 high school students, as many as 320 will have engaged in sexual intercourse by graduation. Half of these students will contract a sexually transmitted disease by the time they reach age 25. These are staggering numbers; but we know that education is the key to prevention. Parents must ensure that their children are receiving the most effective, age-appropriate sexual health education available from their school.

In an effort to assess the sexual health education being provided to students in our communities, the Community Action Fund (CAF) of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties (PPOSBC) conducted an audit of sexual health education textbooks and curricula in Orange County school districts with high schools.

Go to www.PublicSchoolsProject.com to see the whole report.