Parental Victory--Family Foundation

Victoria Cobb, President
Saturday, April 11, 2020

Despite the current COVID-19 crisis and the disappointing news about the Governor signing legislation that eliminates decades of pro-life achievements, we do have some GREAT news for parents of public school students – Family Life Education (“Sex-Ed”) curriculum will be made available online for easy advanced viewing very soon!

One of the major concerns that parents have expressed to The Family Foundation over the years regarding the public school’s Family Life Education (FLE) curriculum is the lack of transparency.  That is, while public schools are required to make FLE materials available for parents to review, the law only requires they make these sensitive and values laden materials available at the school library upon appointment during school hours. But that is often a great inconvenience for working parents.

But thanks to Delegate Jay Leftwich (R-78, Chesapeake) who carried HB 1394 for The Family Foundation, a bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, parents will soon have the ability to easily access Sex-Ed materials through an online parent portal beginning with the 2021-2022 school year.  Now parents will have far greater access to the materials so they can be more fully informed on the things within sex education being taught to their children.  This is real progress for parental rights!

We hear all too often about incidents in which students read or see sexually explicit material because parents were not able to review written lessons or audio-visual content.  One example occurred in Albemarle County in 2018, when one of the high schools had 14-year old freshman girls watch explicit “how-to” videos in an FLE class on male and female sexual pleasure.  It’s a perfect example of why parents must have every opportunity to review what their children are being taught.

While we are thrilled about this achievement, it does not remove our ongoing concerns about the curriculum’s content. That’s why we encourage you use this new access to monitor exactly what and how these sensitive topics are being taught to your children so that you can voice your concerns about anything that conflicts with your values.

Finally, while this year Easter Sunday may look and feel a little different for many people, the message of a risen Jesus Christ will never change.  That is our everlasting hope!  I pray that you and your family have a blessed Easter celebrating our risen Savior!

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More evidence of why Christian kids should not be in public schools if it can be avoided. I realize that there are some families, especially single-parent situations, where there is no other option, but I feel we're doing every Christian a disservice to not point out the dangers of public education. I liken it to being pro-abortion because of cases of rape or incest. I think many more families than just 15-20% could have other schooling options than public; the problem is that parents do not realize the very foundation they want laid is being interrupted continually by the curriculum and worldview of the teachers. Church one or two days per week cannot overturn the 5 days a week kids are in a setting where God is completely left out of the curriculum and conversation. With a young adult at a secular college, I can assure you that educators have an agenda, much more so than they did when I was at a secular college 22 years ago or when I was in public school decades ago.