Home > Issues > Reproductive Rights > Sex Education in California Public Schools: Are Students Le...

Sex Education in California Public Schools: Are Students Learning What They Need To Know?

Despite recent improvements, California teenagers continue to have rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STI) that would be considered a crisis in many countries. In fact, teen birth rates for California are higher than those for every other Western democracy in the world.1 This raises the question of whether the state’s public schools are adequately educating young people about their sexual health. This survey of middle and high schools indicates that parents want quality sex education, but that schools’ efforts to provide it face many obstacles.

»Download  (603 Kb)







LANDMARK CASES

Academy of Pediatrics vs. Lungren
The California Supreme Court strikes down the 1987 California law requiring teenagers under 18 to obtain parental or judicial consent to end a pregnancy.

Committee to Defend Reproductive Rights v. Myers
The California Supreme Court rules that the state cannot manipulate poor women's reproductive choices by funding childbirth but not abortion.