New Florida Law Prohibits Talking with K-8 Kids About Gender Identity, Expands Parental Bill of Rights

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Florida House Bill 1069 which expanded the Florida Parental Bill of Rights and put defined restrictions on school district materials and curriculum passed through the Florida House and Senate and is on the way to Governor Ron DeSantis where it will be signed into law.  The bill's effective date is July 1, 2023 in advance of the upcoming school year.  

The bill will end discretionary judgment on behalf of local school boards for the permission of controversial sex curriculum and materials, a debate that has hyper charged local activists to petition school boards for the permission of, or restriction of, books with explicit sexual content.  

Now, the State of Florida has interceded with clear definitions, restrictions, policies, and defined proceedures eliminating the gray area of previous lesser restrictive Florida regulations regarding sex education in Florida schools.  

“The bill seeks to protect parental rights and prevent the indoctrination of children in schools,” bill sponsor Clay Yarborough said. Referring to the use of certain pronouns that don’t correspond to the person’s “sex” as defined by reproductive function, hormones and genitalia at birth, Yarborough said, “The bill also protects students and teachers from being required to use language that violates our personal convictions.”

You can read the full text of the bill here, now on a fast track to become Florida law.  

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1069

The bill summary reads as follows :

Education; Defines "sex" for Florida Early Learning-20 Education Code; provides requirements relating to titles & pronouns; revises provisions relating to instruction & materials for specified instruction relating to reproductive health; provides additional requirements for instruction regarding human sexuality; provides district school boards are responsible for materials used in classroom libraries; revises provisions relating to objections of certain materials & process related to such objections; revises school principal, school district & district school board duties & responsibilities relating to certain materials & processes.

Practical applications include :

• broadening the state’s prohibition on teaching about sexual identity and gender orientation from kindergarten through third grade to now pre-K through eighth grade
• stipulates that school employees can’t ask students for their preferred pronouns 
• restricts school staff from sharing their pronouns with students if they “do not correspond” with their biological sex
• give parents more of a platform to speak out about curricula they do not approve of
• require school materials to be approved by the Florida Department of Education
• establishes objection forms to the school community that would include contact information for school district leaders
• If an objection is filed regarding pornography or "sexual conduct," the bill would require such materials to be pulled within five school days "and remain unavailable until the objection is resolved."
• providing that district school boards are responsible for materials used in classroom libraries
• requires that teachers use biological pronouns
• Committees convened by a school district to review and make recommendations related to the adoption of instructional materials must include parents of students that will have access to the materials being reviewed. All meetings of such committees must be publicly noticed and open to the public.
• Any specific materials subject to an objection on the basis that the materials are pornographic, harmful to minors, or describe or depict sexual conduct must be removed from circulation at the school where the objection was made
• The bill requires that all books in elementary school classroom libraries be included in the required online catalog of elementary school library materials and school districts must adopt and implement a process for parents to limit their child’s access to library materials.
• The bill defines “sex” for the purposes of the education code and requires that instruction in
  human sexuality include instruction on the binary, stable, and unchanging nature of biological sex.

The Florida ACLU defined the bill as follows :

Requires sex ed programs to teach that sex is determined by reproductive function at birth and is binary and unchangeable and to use only materials approved by the state Department of Education. The bill also allows anyone in the district to object to any material in the classroom or school library or on a reading list that depicts or describes any sexual conduct, even if it is not pornographic, if it is not for a health course. Such material would be removed pending investigation and subject to permanent removal.