• The Michigan Board of Education is weighing whether to update public school sex education standards for the first time since 2007
• New additions to the program would include grade-appropriate discussions on mental health, substance abuse, gender and more
• The change has angered conservatives, who view the updates as a violation of parental rights. A final vote could come later this year.

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LANSING —  Conservative activists and concerned parents flooded a Michigan Board of Education meeting on Tuesday to protest proposed changes to sex education standards they called “indoctrination.”

The draft standards would rewrite sex ed curriculum standards for the first time since 2007, an overhaul advocates say is long overdue given advances in health science, data and technology.

But a recommendation that schools include instruction about gender identity or expression and sexual orientation by eighth grade has prompted criticism from several parental rights groups and Republican politicians. 

“These proposed standards go far beyond physical health,” said Monica Yatooma, a 2026 Republican candidate for Secretary of State. “They cross into deeply personal and spiritual territory, normalizing behaviors that many families find harmful and contrary to their faith.’

​​Multiple speakers, including activists with Moms for Liberty and Citizens for Traditional Values, urged the Democratic-led state board to reject the proposed standards — which amount to recommendations that schools could choose whether to adopt. 

A handful of supporters defended the recommendations, however.

“These are transparent, evidence-informed standards designed to equip educators and families with up-to-date information — not to impose ideology,” said Taryn Gal, executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health.

Gal touted the standards as empowering local communities “to decide what works best for them” with the most up-to-date information, rather than a move to cut parents out of the equation.

The state Board of Education did not decide Tuesday whether to adopt the proposed standards. It’s not clear when members might vote or if the Michigan Department of Education will make significant revisions before that happens. 

In the meantime, here’s what we know about the proposed updates — and why they’re causing consternation among some parents.

What’s being proposed

Parents would still retain the right to opt their child out of sex ed instructional time and districts — with parent input — would still determine whether or how to teach sex ed.

But the proposed changes would broaden what schools could teach.

Among other things, the proposed standards recommend schools begin discussing gender identity, expression and sexual orientation with students between sixth and eighth grades, including: 

• Define gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, and explain that they are distinct components of every individual’s identity. 
• Explain how biological sex, gender identity and gender expression are distinct concepts and how they interact with each other. 
• Explain that romantic, emotional and/or sexual attractions can be toward an individual of the same gender and/or different gender(s) and that attractions can change over time. 
• Demonstrate ways to show courtesy and respect for others when aspects of their sexuality or gender are different from one’s own. 
• Practice skills to intervene if teasing or bullying based on sexuality are occurring and how to support those affected. 
• Encourage others to refrain from teasing or bullying others based on their sexuality, sexual orientation or gender

Between ninth and 12th grades, the proposed standards suggest schools focus on promoting respect for and discouraging bullying of students based on those characteristics, including: 

• Discuss the role of personal, community and societal beliefs, values, and actions in creating a culture free of bullying, harassment and abuse, and all forms of sexual and gender-based violence. 
• Demonstrate how to access valid and reliable information and resources to help or support someone
• Discuss different forms of abuse in relationships including emotional abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, dating violence, gender-based violence, sex trafficking and exploitation, and available supports and resources for getting help if in an abusive or exploitative relationship. 
• Discuss how to foster empathy, inclusivity and respect around issues related to gender and sexuality. 
• Identify and support school and community policies and programs that promote respect for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions. 

The proposed health education standards also recommend schools discuss the impact of new technologies like social media, including:

• Grades 3-5: Demonstrating how social media and technology can influence mental and emotional well-being, including a person’s stress levels, happiness or mood.
  
• Grades 6-8: Analyzing how sharing or posting personal information electronically about oneself or others can affect the safety of self and/or others. Additionally, analyze the impact of technology and social media on relationships, as well as the effects of social media on mental and emotional health.
  
• Grades 9-12: Evaluating the influence of peers, social media, online content, family, society, community and culture on body image and the influence body image has on health. Students at this level will also review strategies to protect personal information — both online and on social media — as well as how to apply safe behaviors to promote privacy, well-being and respectful online communication. 

As is current practice, schools would decide their own curriculums based on recommendations by mandatory Sex Education Advisory Boards composed of at least 50% parents. Elected school boards would decide whether to adopt the recommendations. 

Parents would also maintain existing legal rights: Schools would have to notify them about sex ed classes, allow them to review instructional materials and opt out their children without penalty. 

Read the full proposed sex ed standards here.  

Opposition from parents, lawmakers

Roughly 70 people signed up to speak in-person or remotely during Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting. Most of them were strongly opposed to the proposed standards. 

John Grossenbacher, a Republican candidate for the 61st House district in Macomb County, was the first to address the board, arguing the draft document reads “like a parenting manual … not academic standards.” 

“Through these standards, there’s indoctrination peppered throughout under the label of health,” he said, later adding that “teaching kids before second grade to correct their parents on recycling isn’t health education — it’s social conditioning.”

The concern for parental rights was echoed separately by state Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, in a Friday letter addressed to State Board of Education members. 

In it, she said she viewed the rework of Michigan’s sex ed standards as undermining a parent’s ability to opt out of the curriculum by “reclassifying sex education content as general health education.” 

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Greene claimed the changes were a “serious overreach of administrative authority” by tying sex ed instruction — something a child can be opted out of — to general health education, which is compulsory for all public school students.

Some conservative news outlets have falsely claimed the state is pushing to make the curriculum mandatory, eliminating the option for parents to opt out their students. 

That’s “misinformation,” state education officials said Tuesday.

“Politicians, media and advocacy groups have spread falsehoods to scare parents into thinking that schools would teach sex education to their children without giving parents a chance to opt out from the instruction,” State Board of Education Chair Pamela Pugh said in a statement released ahead of the meeting. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The proposal would not change a 2004 law requiring schools to notify parents of sex ed classes, allow them to review instruction materials and opt their child out of the class “without penalty or loss of academic credit.”

“Parent rights, local control and transparency are and would remain important parts of health education and sex education,” added Department of Education Deputy Superintendent Diane Golzynski. “The sex ed standards opt-out provision would allow parents to choose for themselves whether or not their children should take part in sex education classes.”

What are the current standards

Current state law requires schools inform students about the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS through sexual intercourse while emphasizing abstinence as the “only protection that is 100% effective against unplanned pregnancy” and sexually transmitted infections.

Any additional sexual education beyond that is up to the schools, though that information must be age-appropriate and medically accurate.

Schools cannot teach about abortion as a “method of family planning” according to a 2023 memorandum on the legal obligations of teaching sexual education in public schools. 

The newly proposed standards would not change those laws. The draft does not mention abortion and recommends schools “articulate the benefits of abstinence, postponing sexual activity and setting personal limits” by eighth grade. 

Lawmakers have tried several times to update the standards on their own, though each attempt has ultimately failed.

The most recent attempt — in 2024 — would have required schools that taught sex ed to provide instruction about consent, contraceptives and teach about “all legally available pregnancy outcomes” including abortion.

The bill never received a committee hearing.

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