User:Summerholloway/sandbox

= Sex Education in Louisiana =

The legislation regarding the availability of sex education is a widely debated topic which has important economic, social, and health consequences. According to Roemer and Paxman, advocates for comprehensive sex education aim to promote healthy sex behaviors and resources, while those opposed believe that the discussion of sex in schools will lead to increased sex behaviors in adolescents. In the United States, each state composes its own legislation for sexual education in schools. In Louisiana, sex education not permitted until 1979, when the current sex education legislation was enacted.

Current Position
In Louisiana, public schools are allowed, but not required, at the discretion of the local school board to teach sex education. This education must emphasize abstinence until marriage as the primary method to avoid unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, and is not allowed to advocate for abortion. The subject must be taught within another subject, such as biology, and cannot be its own class. No sex education is permitted from kindergarten to the sixth grade - except in Orleans Parish, where it is allowed in the third grade and higher - but the school board can determine at what grade level the subject is taught beyond the sixth grade.Schools are not able to give out contraceptives or provide any resource materials that depict explicit homosexual sexual activity.