Primary Level Opt-Out Form (Grades K-5)

Middle Level Opt-Out Form (Grades 6-8)

High Level Opt-Out Form (Grades 9-12)

Adopted 2021-22 Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Plan (uploaded May 4, 2022)

The West Linn-Wilsonville School Board updated the 2019 Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Plan during the 2021-22 school year. Plan updates included curriculum materials that will be used and agreements about practices and communication. In April 2019, district staff formed a Health and Sexuality Task Force composed of teachers, counselors, learning specialists, administrators, and parents. The Task Force has parent members representing district primary, middle, and high schools as well as different viewpoints about sexuality education. The purpose of the Task Force was to identify any added curriculum materials and to revise the agreements and communication practices. The update plan defines the materials used in the practices and communication that will be in place in all WLWV K-12 classrooms. The district will continue to develop lessons for grades 6-12 that will be implemented starting in the 2022-23 school year.

The district held a parent input meeting on April 25, where staff and Task Force members shared samples of the materials and a draft of the agreements about practices and communication to gather community feedback. 

• April 25 Community Input Session Presentation

February 25, 2019 — The West Linn-Wilsonville School Board approved and adopted the district's Health and Wellness Curriculum: Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Plan during the Feb. 25 Board Meeting. A minor edit was made on Dec. 17, 2019 for clarity.

The West Linn-Wilsonville School Board will update the Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Plan during the 2021-22 school year. Plan updates describe the curriculum materials that will be used and agreements about practices and communication. In April 2019, district staff formed a Health and Sexuality Task Force composed of teachers, counselors, learning specialists, administrators, and parents. The Task Force has parent members representing district primary, middle, and high schools as well as different viewpoints about sexuality education. The purpose of the Task Force was to identify any added curriculum materials and to revise the agreements and communication practices. The update plan defines the materials used in the practices and communication that will be in place in all WLWV K-12 classrooms. 

The district held a parent input meeting on April 25, where staff and Task Force members shared samples of the materials and a draft of the agreements about practices and communication to gather community feedback. 

Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education Plan 16 Guidelines

1. District administrators, teachers, and counselors will ensure all curriculum and instructional practices are age appropriate, using ODE’s definition of what is age appropriate.
2. All sexuality education curriculum will be reviewed by the district’s administrators, teachers, counselors and equity and cultural responsiveness experts for the purpose of ensuring they are culturally inclusive and responsive.
3. All sexuality education curriculum will be reviewed by national and state health education departments to ensure the curriculum is medically accurate, as determined by national and state public health agencies, and meets the Oregon Department of Education criteria.

4. For middle and high school semester health courses, families will receive a course syllabus from their students’ teachers at the beginning of the semester that includes the sexuality education topics covered and the curriculum materials used. This is because Health and Wellness are semester courses in grades 6-12. Teachers will send a syllabus through email and also provide paper copies for students to take home, have signed, and return to teachers. In addition, families of middle and high school students in semester health courses will receive email and paper notification at least one week in advance of specific sexuality lessons. The notification will include the topics, class activities for teaching the topics, and identify the specific materials that will be used.

5. Families of K-5 students will receive an overview of the health topics taught at each grade level, including sexuality education topics, at the beginning of the school year from their child’s teacher. In grades K-5, health and wellness topics are taught in short lessons during the school day throughout the entire year. The overview will include the topics and the curriculum materials used.
   
   Classroom teachers will send the overview through email and also provide paper copies for students to take home, have signed, and return to teachers. Additionally, counselors will send a letter to families about the grade level Child Protection Unit topics that will be taught with Second Step curriculum, at least one week in advance of the instruction, through email and paper copies that students take home to have signed and returned. In 2018-2019, nurses will provide classroom teachers with a letter that will go home through email and paper copies to 5th-grade families about disease prevention and puberty lesson. The letters will be sent at least one week in advance of the instruction and include topics, a link to the video used for the puberty lessons, and identify the materials used. In 2019-2020, 4th-grade families will also receive the letter through email and paper copies.

6. The district will translate all notifications about sexuality education into Spanish for emails and paper copy distribution. The district will use contracted services when schools identify the need to translate information into additional languages.

7. Opt-out forms and directions will be included in each communication to K-12 families about sexuality education topics so students may opt out of specific lessons/topics. The opt-out form may be completed and returned to the Health/Wellness or classroom teacher or to the school office in person by parents/guardians or as an email attachment. The opt-out form will be available on the district website.

8. Health/Wellness and/or classroom teachers will provide a straightforward reading and writing assignment, based on the text, on a topic that is not part of sexuality education for students who opt out of a lesson. Opting out will not affect a student’s grade, course credit, or class participation evaluation in any way.

9. All teachers at a grade level across the district will teach the same sexuality education lessons, using the same materials. In grades K-5, the counselors who use the Second Step Child Protection Unit will present the same lesson and information. The district nurses will use the same lesson plan and materials for disease prevention and puberty lessons for 4th and 5th graders.

10. Teachers will teach the information without adding their values or beliefs, select class activities that do not elicit values and beliefs, and direct students to discuss individual questions with their families.

11. Teachers will plan and teach sexuality education lessons with an emphasis on students feeling safe and comfortable with the learning activities.

12. Curriculum materials used during the time period covered by this CSEP (2018 – 2019 school year through 2020-21 school year) will be limited to:
    1. Grades K-5 – McGraw-Hill Health & Wellness, Second Step (including Bullying Prevention and Child Protection Units), Oregon Department of Education’s Healthy Kids: Keeping Safe Disease Prevention for Elementary Students
    2. Grades 6-8 – Goodheart-Willcox Comprehensive Health Skills for Middle School, Second Step
    3. Grades 9-12 – Goodheart-Willcox Comprehensive Health

13. The full texts (Goodheart-Willcox texts for grades 6-12 and McGraw-Hill text for K-5) that are referenced in the course overviews and advance notifications about specific lessons will be available at each school. Parents/guardians may view the materials by contacting the classroom teacher, Health/Wellness teacher, counselor or principal. Although families will receive links to a district webpage to see the lesson outline, worksheets, and brief text excerpts for sexuality education lessons, copyright rules prevent the district from making an entire text available online.

14. The context for, and approach to, teaching to standards about gender identity is developing respect and acceptance for all individuals.

15. Curriculum and instruction in sexuality education does not include role-playing about these topics, any instruction discussion about specific sexual interactions, or condom demonstrations in middle school.

16. The sexuality education unit outlines in all grades, and the Second Step topic outlines will be posted on the district website in February 2019. The specific lesson plans for sexuality education lessons, grades K-12, will be posted on the district website by the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year.

Curriculum Materials

Based on the questions and feedback from parents at the four parent sessions, there have been revisions made to the curriculum materials that will be used. The curriculum that will be used until the 2020 review of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education Plan includes:

• Second Step Grades K-5
  • SEL, Bully Prevention, Child Protection
• Comprehensive Health Skills for Middle School, published by Goodheart-Willcox Grades 6-8
• Comprehensive Health, 2nd Edition, published by Goodheart-Willcox Grades 9-12

All curriculum is available at your school office. Any parent or community member who wishes to view the curriculum may set up an appointment to review materials at their school.

Update (1/22/2019) 

View the Jan. 22 presentation: Sexuality Education Curriculum Work Session Information and Presentation

The West Linn-Wilsonville School District hosted its fifth Health and Wellness Information Night on Tuesday, Jan. 22, providing updates on the status of the district’s Health and Wellness Plan. The parent work session focused on sexuality education, providing parents and community members the opportunity to review materials of potentially sensitive topics, ask questions, and provide input at the district Health and Wellness team finishes the comprehensive plan. Hundreds of parents throughout K-12 participated in the work session.

District staff outlined the Health/Wellness Standards, which include some new sexuality education topics. Following parent feedback, the district will focus on the following with the new plan:

• Materials, classroom discussions, and activities are age appropriate.
• There is advance notice of topics and how they will be taught.
• All instruction and activities are based on information from approved texts, not on beliefs or interpretations from individual teachers.
• Lessons and activities will be the same across district classrooms at each grade level.
• Lessons and activities will be planned and taught so that there is a comfortable and safe learning environment.

Community members also asked for additional attention to nutrition, mental health, bullying, social media, and understanding of alcohol and substance use. Community members also noted that gender identity language and discussion could be made more clear as to avoid confusion, and asked for an increased commitment to ensuring that the personal values and beliefs of individual educators do not influence the teaching of health and wellness.

The Process

The State of Oregon adopted new Health and Wellness Standards in 2016, requiring school districts across the state to approve and implement Health and Wellness Plans during the 2018-19 school year.

In response to those new standards, a WLWV team of counselors, teachers, and administrators began working to learn about the new State standards, explore curricular resources, and implement practices to teach toward those standards at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. All Health and Wellness teachers at the secondary level are certified in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Those teachers frequently engage in professional development and research in health and wellness curriculum.

Parents joined administrators during five separate parent workshops to learn about the standards and provide feedback about the implementation process of health and wellness practices throughout K-12 in the school district. The Comprehensive Health and Wellness Plan will be presented to the School Board on Feb. 4 for review and potential adoption.