State Sex Education Policies and Requirements at a Glance
- Kentucky schools are required to teach sex education.
- Curriculum is not required to be comprehensive.
- Curriculum must include instruction on abstinence as the desirable goal for school-age youth.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on consent.
- Kentucky has no standard regarding the ability of parents and guardians to remove their children from sex education instruction.
- Kentucky has no standard regarding medically accurate sex education instruction.
State Law
Kentucky Revised Statute 156:160 requires that the Kentucky Board of Education “promulgate administrative regulations establishing standards [that public] school districts shall meet.” With that authority, 704 KAR 3:305 was promulgated, requiring students to take 0.5 credits of health education in order to graduate. It also requires the health education course to include the content standards delineated in the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. Furthermore, 704 KAR 3:303 adopted the Kentucky Academic Standards into law.
In 2018, Kentucky enacted Chapter 156, stating that any human sexuality or STD curricula must include instruction on abstinence, state that “abstinence from sexual activity is the desirable goal for all school-age children,” and advocate for “permanent mutually faithful monogamous relationship[s].”
Kentucky statute does not require parental permission for students to participate in sexuality or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related instruction.
State Profiles provided by SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change. For more information regarding your state’s sex ed policy, visit https://siecus.org/state_profile/kentucky-state-profile/
