Montgomery County holds public hearing on family life curriculum; parents given 30 days to opt in or out

The Montgomery County School System held a public hearing on its family life curriculum, where district staff described the programas being in its fourth year and said parents will have a 30-day window to opt in or out pending school board approval.

Becky Padgett, director of curriculum and instruction for high schools in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, told the hearing the family life curriculum website is available for families to review and that the program is updated annually based on teacher feedback. "The family life curriculum is in its fourth year being taught in our school system," Padgett said. She said the district vets the curriculum each summer, trains teachers in the fall and that this yearstaff development training is scheduled for Oct. 7, pending board approval.

Padgett said the curriculum is aligned to the Tennessee health and wellness state standards and that instructional slides are annotated with the relevant standard and the law. She said the district added the "success sequence" to the curriculum this year "as required by law," and made changes based on last year's teacher feedback, including improved accessibility for non-English-speaking students and clearer classroom structures for students to ask questions. "Parents and guardians will receive the FLC information as noted on the website," she said, referring to the public review materials. Padgett added that parents will have 30 days to respond with an opt-in or opt-out preference and that if no response is received the student will be considered in opt-out status at the end of that window.

During public comment, Christine McNamara, a parent with six children enrolled in the district, asked whether the curriculum includes instruction about condoms and expressed concern about what she described as an increase in Christian nationalist influence in the school system. "Are we not ensuring kids are learning about condoms?" McNamara asked. She also described foster-care experience raising concerns about students' baseline knowledge of reproductive biology.

A hearing moderator said the forum was intended to gather comment and that staff would provide a follow-up answer to McNamarawithin two weeks. The district did not announce any changes or votes at the hearing; Padgett said new students who enroll will be provided access to the curriculum and the same opt-in/opt-out opportunity upon enrollment.

The district said it used a Google survey last year to collect teacher feedback and that the updated curriculum incorporates that feedback. Padgett said implementation will run from November through May for students who receive the family life curriculum or the alternative lessons offered to those who opt out.

Next steps noted at the hearing: the school board must approve the curriculum for the public 30-day review to open; after that review parents will be asked to submit opt-in or opt-out preferences, and the district will respond to a parent question about whether condoms are covered within two weeks.