State Sex Education Policies and Requirements at a Glance
Minnesota schools are required to teach sex education.
- Curriculum must include instruction that helps students abstain from sexual activity until marriage.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on consent.
- Curriculum must be available for parental review. Parents or guardians may remove their children from instruction if they object to the content. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
- Minnesota has no regulation regarding medically accurate sex education. However, the curriculum is required to be “technically accurate.”
State Law
Minnesota Statutes §§ 120B.20 and 121A.23 require every school district to develop and implement a comprehensive risk-reduction program “including but not exclusive to human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] and human papilloma virus [HPV].” While the state has not developed a specific curriculum, each school district must have “a comprehensive, technically accurate, and updated curriculum that includes helping students to abstain from sexual activity until marriage” and must target “adolescents, especially those who may be at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections [STIs] and [sexually transmitted] diseases [STDs], for prevention efforts.”
Minnesota also requires each school district to:
[H]ave a procedure for a parent, guardian, or an adult student (18 years of age or older) to review the content of the instructional materials to be provided to a minor child or to an adult student and, if the parent, guardian, or adult student objects to the content, to make reasonable arrangements with school personnel for alternative 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/minnesota-state-profile-23/
