Duval board debates limits, notification and gender separation in revised health curriculum policy

Duval County School Board members spent extensive time reviewing redlined edits to Policy 4.1 (curriculum), centering on reproductive-health instruction in grades 6–12, how families are notified, teacher certification for stand‑alone health courses, and state versus local authority over curriculum content.

Paula Lindstrom, a district staff presenter, said one planned change would allow procedures to separate certain sixth- through eighth-grade reproductive-health lessons by gender: “we may implement procedures to allow 6, 7, and 8 grade health classes for particular those particular lessons around reproductive health to be separated by gender.” Lindstrom also described added language on family notification and timelines before lessons: the policy draft includes “clarification about notification when health and reproductive lessons would be taught, how that information will be disseminated to families and followed up in a timeline prior to the lesson lessons being presented.”

Board members pressed for more specificity in notification methods. One…