‘Sex ed’ exemptions in Ontario schools

Abstract

This project explores how ‘sex ed’ exemptions are being enacted in Ontario classrooms. In August 2019, the Ministry of Education issued Policy/Program Memorandum 162, requiring Ontario school boards to have a policy or procedure allowing Grade 1-8 students to be exempted from Human Development and Sexual Health curriculum expectations at their parents' request. However, rather than limiting exemptions to formal lessons in the HDSH expectations of elementary Health and Physical Education, many teachers believe that they must exempt students from any conversation, formal or not, involving 2SLGBTQ+ topics. This has the potential to further stigmatize queer identities, as well as related topics and discussions. This research is also connected the conversation of how much sway “parental rights” have in the classroom. The first stage of this project has involved collecting exemption policy documents and board exemption forms, along with tracking how findable these documents are. As of today, 56 boards appear to have responded to PPM 162, either by passing a new policy or revising an existing one. Only 41% of school boards have a description of their exemption process available through Google search, while 30% of boards do not have their process available online at all. Unfortunately, problematic organizations like Parents as First Educators and Canadian Gender Report—both of which publish ‘resources’ claiming that parents have the right to exempt their children from all content about gender and sexual diversity—have materials which appear easily on Google search, sometimes even before authorized school board pages. If school boards do not have official exemption processes and forms readily available online, it is possible that parents will turn to these problematic documents instead. These gaps in the online availability of official board information may contribute to the dangerous misunderstandings present in how ‘sex ed’ exemptions are handled in Ontario schools.