4) Privacy and Confidentiality Regarding Disclosures. A studentʼs transgender status, birth name, and sex assigned at birth are confidential information and considered personally identifiable information (PII) under FERPA....When students have not come out to their parent(s), a disclosure to parent(s) should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. School districts should consider the health, safety, and well-being of the student, as well as the responsibility to keep parents informed. Privacy considerations may vary with the age of the students. 

Directing the care of a child is a natural right of parents, and is outside of the scope of the role of public schools. This is not only concerning in regards to sexual health and abortion, but may become problematic in regards to gender identity.  As seen in Ohio, there is potential for state agencies and courts to side step parents altogether to facilitate gender transition.  

The Michigan State School Board issued a guidance (not a law) related to LGBTQ issues in 2016, to be implemented with the input of the community, as required by law. Of particular concern to be aware of in regard to parental rights, disclosure of a student's transgender status at school will not necessarily be disclosed to parents if a district follows this guidance.

STATE SCHOOL BOARD GUIDANCE ON LGBTQ YOUTH 

Since 2000, MDE and ISD Regional Health Coordinators have trained over 2100 teachers and administrators in over 300 districts on LGBTQ curriculum and implementation of LGBTQ friendly policies into schools, with a training called A Silent Crisis. The accompanying resource guide, including legal and policy advice provided to Michigan teachers and district administrators, are written by LGBTQ activist groups. Multiple documents from A Silent Crisis were provided to a district Sex Ed Advisory Board to support the teaching of gender identity curriculum, which had been previously taught without legal approval or parental consent for several years. 

MDE's a silent crisis training for educators and administrators

Resource websites for students used in conjunction with Sex Ed and programs on related topics may be problematic in regards to CSE Content, containing links which easily direct students to inappropriate content, as well as to medical care outside of parental knowledge and consent. Such websites contributed to the protest of thousands of California parents.  Parents of a Michigan district uncovered similar website concerns (Scarleteen, love is respect, Stayteen) when evaluating proposed Sex Ed curriculum for their district, outlined in a letter to the district.
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resource websites

*   School newspapers: The content of school newspapers conforms with the           policy for student publications.
*   School library holdings: These are governed by library policies.
*   Classroom book collections: These are not subject to the sex education laws.
*   Research papers, debates, or speeches: Topics chosen by students that               pertain to sexuality issues are allowable in non-health classes in                           accordance with the class teacher’s parameters, without formal school
     board approval.
*   Resource materials in public areas of the school: This might include, but is         not limited to, student-created or recommended posters in the hallways or         restrooms, pamphlets in the counseling or nursing office, or artwork. These       are not subject to sex education laws but will be approved by the principal         or designee.
*   Clothing or items with messages: These are governed by the dress code.” 

*   School newspapers: The content of school newspapers conforms with the policy for student publications.
*   School library holdings: These are governed by library policies.
*   Classroom book collections: These are not subject to the sex education laws.
*   Research papers, debates, or speeches: Topics chosen by students that pertain to sexuality issues are allowable in non-health classes in accordance with the class teacher’s parameters, without formal school board approval.
*   Resource materials in public areas of the school: This might include, but is         not limited to, student-created or recommended posters in the hallways or         restrooms, pamphlets in the counseling or nursing office, or artwork. These are not subject to sex education laws but will be approved by the principal or designee.
*   Clothing or items with messages: These are governed by the dress code.” 

Sex education content may appear in a variety of venues throughout the school. The following are not considered part of the instructional program; therefore, they do not require the approval required by state law. Each has its own process for approval:

*   Programs occurring during the lunch period or after school
*   Grant programs that include sex education topics, such as teen pregnancy         prevention or dating violence programs
*   Seminars or forums that address sexuality issues and/or HIV/STI education
*   Athletic team meetings

*   Programs occurring during the lunch period or after school
*   Grant programs that include sex education topics, such as teen pregnancy    prevention or dating violence programs
*   Seminars or forums that address sexuality issues and/or HIV/STI education
*   Athletic team meetings

“Sex education topics might be addressed during non-instruction times. While sex education that is not part of the formal instructional time doesn’t have to go through the formal school board approval process specified in state law, our district expects these situations to be brought to the attention of the Sex Education Advisory Board and parents to be notified prior to implementation. Examples of some non-instructional situation include: 

In regards to Instructional and Non-Instructional Program Delivery, the new MDE Sexual Health Education Guide outlines how Sex Education topics might be delivered during non-instruction times, without the Sex Ed Advisory Board approval and parental consent required by law for Sex Education (p. 8-9).

NON-INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM DELIVERY of sex ed topics

toolkit to advance CSE with Sex ed advisory boards

In late 2018, MDE's HIV/STD Education Consultant, with input from "national leaders" in sex education, created a Sexual Health Education Guide for school districts, recommending Puberty: The Wonder Years for grades 4-6, Healthy Sexuality for grade 7, Michigan Model for grades 8-10, and Rights, Respect, Responsibility (3-R’s) for grades 11 and 12. The 3-R’s suggested for 11th and 12th grade Michigan students includes modules on “Gender and Sexual Orientation”, and “Fantasy or Reality”.  The MDE Sexual Health Education Guide was shared with ISD Coordinators at the 2019 MISHCA Conference by the author of Puberty: The Wonder Years, who collaborated on the project.  The Sexual Health Education Guide is listed as a resource from MDE on the MOASH website, of which MDE's HIV/STD Consultant is a co-founder and current board member.  (MOASH advocates for Comprehensive Sex Ed and doing away with the legal requirement for parental consent for abortion for minors, and provides information on obtaining a judicial bypass for an abortion when youth cannot obtain parental permission.)

Rights, Respect, Responsibility (3'R's) was written by Advocates for Youth, and is recommended by Planned Parenthood, who the authors have strong connections with. The full 3-R’s curriculum begins with teaching genitalia in kindergarten, and continues with over-sexualized content through high school. The curriculum is in use in California, and has contributed to mass parent protests and a Sex Ed sit out in 2019 of over 12,000 students.

An ISD coordinator wrote to a Michigan school district of "3-R’s", “coordinators are working now on how to integrate these lessons with a smooth transition to MM (Michigan Model). The training focused a lot too on how to word certain things without offending students. This can easily be done in our MM training.” Many Michigan districts use Michigan Model for Health for their Health curriculum K-12, as well as for their Sex Ed curriculum. A Pre-K module to the Michigan Model for Health was announced at the MISCHA conference in June 2019. Michigan Model for Health is a collaboration of MDE and MDHHS, and is used in over 80% of Michigan school districts, as well as numerous other states. 

Additional CSE based curricula is recommended within Michigan, including ETR.  Review of additional curricula used in the US may be found here, and a review of the "3'R's" is available here.

MDE's sexual health education guide

The National Sexuality Education Standards promote the early and over-sexualization of children, explicit sexual content, gender identity, LGBTQ issues, and teach students to become an ally/advocate on sexuality issues, even if such content contradicts the values of a student’s family. The standards are a collaboration of Planned Parenthood, activist groups and individuals (including the HIV/STD Education Consultant at the Michigan Department of Education).  The standards sound official, sometimes being referred to as the "national standards", and are used to legitimize integration of Comprehensive Sex Ed materials (CSE) into Sex Ed and K-12 Health curriculum.  

national sexuality education standards & MDE

influences 

An Ottawa County Health Department sexuality educator, who serves on the board of MOASH, offered her assistance to a Michigan school district, after being informed by the ISD coordinator that the district's Sex Ed Advisory Board was being “revamped”.  She discussed conducting focus groups on sexual behavior with students, and had previously provided in school sexual health services within the district (which can be provided without parental notification or consent). The sexuality educator presented to the district's Sex Ed Advisory Board to educate them on the YAS behavioral data of  Ottawa County youth, which is a behavioral data survey, to include specific sexual behaviors of students in middle school and high school. 

The consulted district's proposed Sex Ed curriculum in 2019 included use of problematic resource websites, which were also posted on a local website and Facebook page for teens by the County Health Department.  These websites contain links to sexually explicit Scarleteen.com and Planned Parenthood.

The Ottawa County Health Department also provides an infant to teen sexuality education packet to parents of Ottawa County, which includes Planned Parenthood materials. Several of the book and website resources included align with the Planned Parenthood Comprehensive Sex Ed agenda, including Advocates for Youth, which promotes the 3-R's, and Planned Parenthood’s Sex Etc.org website.

Beyond Sex Ed, the Washtenaw County Health Department was instrumental in the presentation of I Am Jazz in all of the elementary classrooms in Saline, MI. 

The Washtenaw County Task Force on Transgender Youth, in partnership with the Washtenaw County Health Department, has produced a video of various members of the greater Washtenaw community reading a children's book about a transgender student. The County and District’s goal is to support a positive school and community environment that recognizes the differences amongst all of us. We have transgender students in our elementary buildings. It is important that all students are supported on a daily basis.

Saline Area Schools Administration & Board of Education
Longmoore, T.  (2018) 'Saline's Decision to Participate in Reading of Transgender Children's Book Sparks Controversy', The Saline Post, 7 December.

Local Health Departments may also promote Planned Parenthood aligned CSE materials to children in our schools, as well as promote and in some cases provide sexual health services to our students without parental consent or notification. Each of Michigan’s Health Departments are independently members of NACCHO, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and Michigan as a whole has a state branch of the NACCHO organization called MALPH. NACCHO’s policy on Sex Education encourages promotion of Comprehensive Sex Education and is against abstinence only education in schools.  Their involvement in Michigan can be seen in this article.

health departments & CSE

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