NJ Education Commissioner Defends New Sex Ed Standards

TRENTON, NJ — New Jersey's acting commissioner of education reaffirmed her support of the state Department of Education's controversial standards on sex education, saying the standards are necessary for the health and safety of students.

Acting Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, speaking to the New Jersey State Board of Education's monthly meeting on Wednesday, addressed the controversy that has infuriated parents and been weaponized by political campaigns in recent weeks.

The 2020 Comprehensive Health and Physical Education learning standards "are structured around three areas," Allen-McMillan said, " personal and mental health, physical wellness, and safety."

"Providing knowledge is necessary for students to make safe, informed decisions at the high school level," and to protect them from social pressures and dating violence, she said. Students need to be able to "communicate clearly when their trust and privacy has been violated."

"For these reasons I firmly support the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Comprehensive Health and Physical Education," she said.

But Allen-McMillan also acknowledged the rights of parents to be involved in helping their local school districts define a curriculum and educational materials that matches the community's values.

The standards were approved in March 2020 following public hearings and discussions, have been under fire on and off since the spring of 2021. The state delayed implementation of the standards for the Fall of 2021 because districts around the state were still consumed with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The opposition to the sex education standards intensified in early April when copies of a sample lesson plan distributed to parents in the Westfield school district were highlighted and vilified by national media outlets as being inappropriate. Westfield had not adopted the lesson plan as part of its curriculum, school district officials said.

The resulting firestorm led Gov. Phil Murphy to order the Department of Education to take another look at the standards.

"I have directed my Department of Education to review the standards and provide further clarification on what age-appropriate guidelines look like for our students," Murphy said two weeks ago. "My Administration is committed to ensuring that all of our students are equipped to lead healthy, productive lives now and in the future."

Who is conducting that review is unclear, however. The 13-member state Board of Education, which voted 8-4 to approve the standards in 2020, discussed the public reaction on Wednesday but took no action to either alter the standards or delay the implementation.

"There are people who fundamentally disagree with some of these standards based on their religious beliefs," board vice president Andrew Mulvillhill said, adding there are members of the public who believe "there is a political and moral view that is being put forth by the state of New Jersey" in the sex education standards.

"We're providing one side of how people should look at some of these very contentious issues," he said. "I'm hoping we could take a look and pull some of the contentious language out."

Board President Kathy Goldberg said she had discussed the possibility of delaying implementation of the standards with the New Jersey attorney general's office, but it was not clear whether state school board had the authority to do so.

"There will be no vote today," Goldberg said when Mulvillhill pressed her about the possibility of a delay.

"I'm not sure you're seeing the world we're living in," Mulvillhill said, urging a delay on implementation because of the uproar.

It's not clear where the 2021 order to delay implementation came from; the state website on the matter says only that it was delayed because of the pandemic.

Allen-McMillan acknowledged parents' concerns about the standards but also said misinformation had fueled confusion about the process.

The performance expectations, what students should know and be able to do by end of a grade level, is direct and specific but tied to concepts, she said. It leaves considerable room for districts and families to craft a curriculum that reflect the values of the schools' communities.

"The department does not review, approve or actively endorse specified content," Allen-McMillan said. Local school districts decide what materials are used and how long is spent on the subject matter.

"It is critical to include parents along every step of that decision-making process," she said, and highlighted the decision by the East Hanover school district that moved sex education to the final day of the school year, which addressed parents' concerns about classmates who opt out of the material being exposed to it by other students.

"To parents who say we deserve a voice in our child's education, I wholeheartedly agree," she said. "That value is enshrined in our laws."

"For the critics who say the health and sex education as outlined in our standards should not be taught in our schools, I wholeheartedly disagree," she said, saying it is "a disservice and actively harmful to deny our students medically accurate and age and developmentally appropriate information about their bodies."

"We cannot expect our students to report sexual abuse if they lack the language and understanding necessary to describe sexual abuse," Allen-McMillan said. "To withhold this information threatens the safety and positive development of these students."

"I recognize there are some lesson plans and materials I would not select for me or my children's classrooms, but I reinforce the authority of the (local school boards) to adopt curriculum and materials that advance their community's values."

"We're going to work with school districts that find themselves challenged implementing these standards," Allen-McMillan said. "We believe we can get everyone to a place where they feel comfortable implementing the standards."

NJ Education Commissioner Defends New Sex Ed Standards originally appeared on the Toms River Patch