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Ohio

State Information

State Policy Information

State Sex Education Policies and Requirements at a Glance

  • Ohio schools are required to teach sex education.
  • Curriculum is not required to be comprehensive.
  • Curriculum must emphasize abstinence.
  • Curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
  • Curriculum is not required to include instruction on consent.
  • Upon written request of a parent or guardian, a student may be excused from receiving any or all sex education instruction. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
  • Ohio has no standard regarding medically accurate sex education.

State Law

Ohio Revised Code Sections 3313.60 and 3313.6011 require both sex education and human immunodeficiency (HIV)/sexually transmitted infection (STI) instruction, stating that the board of education of each school district must establish a health education curriculum for “all schools under their control.” The health education curriculum must include “[v]enereal disease education,” which must emphasize that “abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is [100 percent] effective against unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease [STD], and the sexual transmission of a virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [AIDS].” Additionally, it must:

  1. Stress that students should abstain from sexual activity until after marriage;
  2. Teach the potential physical, psychological, emotional, and social side effects of participating in sexual activity outside of marriage;
  3. Teach that conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;
  4. Stress that STDs are serious possible hazards of sexual activity;
  5. Advise students of the laws pertaining to financial responsibility of parents to children born in- and out-of-wedlock; and
  6. Advise students of the circumstances under which it is criminal to have sexual contact with a person under the age of 16, pursuant to section 2907.04 of the Revised Code.
  7. Emphasize adoption as an option for unintended pregnancies.

Upon written request of a parent or guardian, a student may be excused from receiving any or all of this instruction. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.

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/ohio-state-profile/