- Alabama state law does not require the teaching of sexuality education, but schools that do must emphasize abstinence.
- Students in grades 5–12 must receive instruction about HIV/AIDS through a health education program.
- Since the April 2021 enactment of HB 385, all sex ed instruction must be medically accurate.
- Sex ed curricula are not required to include instruction on consent, or on sexual orientation or gender identity
- Parents or guardians may remove their children from instruction pertaining to “disease, its symptoms, development, and treatment” if the content is in conflict with their religious beliefs. This is referred to as an opt-out policy.
- Alabama Course of Study: Health Education lays out the minimum content requirements for topics such as HIV, STDs, and pregnancy prevention
Bills to Watch
- HB7 was introduced in 2023. Such legislation would prohibit certain public entities, including local boards of education, from promoting or endorsing, or requiring affirmation of, certain divisive concepts relating to race, sex, or religion.
- HB6 was introduced in 2023. Such legislation would add to existing parental rights legislation stating that parents have the “fundamental right … to direct the education, upbringing, care, custody, and control of their children.”
Some Sex Ed Advocates Within the State
- Planned Parenthood Southeast’s Teen Advocates for Sexual Health (TASH) program
- Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health
For more detailed information on how various districts in the state have been implementing these standards — and for recent legislation — you can read SIECUS’s Alabama profile.