- Idaho state law does not require the teaching of sexuality education.
- Idaho Statute §33-1608 states that the “primary responsibility of family life and sex education” rests with a student’s home and church. All sex ed curricula that are implemented must reinforce this message.
- If schools do provide sex education, lessons must encourage abstinence.
- Sex ed lessons are not required to include lessons on consent, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
- School boards must include parents and community groups in all aspects of instituting and evaluating sex education programs.
- The aforementioned statute also mandates that sex ed programs reinforce the relationship of sex to “the miracle of life” and include “knowledge of the power of the sex drive and the necessity of controlling that drive by self-discipline.”
- In 2023, Idaho enacted HB 228, which amends the previous definition of sex education, now defining it solely as the study of the anatomy and the physiology of human reproduction.
- In 2023, Idaho enacted SB 1071, which prohibits instruction on human sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity prior to 5th grade.
- Parents or guardians who wish to excuse their children from sex ed must file a written request to the school board. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
- The Idaho Department of Education’s Idaho Content Standards for Health Education requires that content related to the “consequences of sexual activity” begin in grades 6-8 and, by grade 12, include encouragement of abstinence.
Bills to Watch
- HB 666 was first introduced in 2022. If passed, it would create penalties for librarians who distribute “harmful materials” to children in K-12 schools.
- HB 139 was introduced in 2023. It would prevent schools from making available or promoting any “picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body that depicts nudity, sexual conduct, or sado-masochistic abuse and that is harmful to minors” or any “any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter however reproduced, or sound recording that contains any matter pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, or explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, or sado-masochistic abuse, and that, taken as a whole, is harmful to minors.”
- SB 1057 was introduced in 2023. It would requires cell phone service manufacturers to include a filter that would prohibit minors from accessing or downloading “harmful material.”
Some Sex Ed Advocates Within the State
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 Idaho profile.