Ohio teaches that children born to unmarried parents are worse off. 2 districts push back
Ohio requires schools to teach students that having a child outside of marriage is bad for them, their child and society overall.
Two school districts pushed back.
Kadee Anstadt, superintendent of Washington Local School District near Toledo, said she won't tell children that they are doomed to be unsuccessful because of their family structure.
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"All kids can be successful, regardless of the kinds of families they come from, and our kids come from all kinds of families," Anstadt told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau. "We cannot be sitting in judgment of what people's families look like, and I'm certainly not going to put that in curriculum."
For that stance, Washington Local School District was marked "noncompliant" with Ohio's standards for venereal disease and sexual education instruction on an annual state report. It was joined by Ridgewood Local Schools near Coshocton, which indicated: "We do not agree with teaching all the information below."
They were the only two districts out of more than 600 to raise issues with the curriculum requirements. In Ohio, 42.6% of children are born to unmarried parents and more than one-third of children live with one parent.
Besides a phone call and a letter, there are no practical consequences for not complying. The school district doesn't lose money and won't get a lower grade on their next report card. Anstadt quipped that she probably wouldn't be named superintendent of the year.
Anstadt said she doesn't want anyone to think the district's sexual education is lacking because of its "noncompliant" status. "I would put our health curriculum and teachers up against anybody in the state. They are amazing, but we're not telling kids they can't be successful because of where they came from."
What are Ohio schools required to teach about sex?
Ohio law requires schools to teach these concepts:
Stress that students should abstain from sexual activity until after marriage.
Teach the potential physical, psychological, emotional and social side effects of participating in sexual activity outside of marriage.
Teach that conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents and society.
Stress that sexually transmitted diseases are serious possible hazards of sexual activity.
Advise students of the laws pertaining to the financial responsibility of parents to children born out of wedlock.
Advise students of the circumstances under which it is criminal to have sexual contact with a person under the age of 16.
Emphasize adoption as an option for unintended pregnancies.
Is having a child outside of marriage bad for the kid, society?
About 40% of Americans who gave birth in 2021 were not married, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That rate is up significantly from 18.4% in 1980 but has remained relatively stable over the past 15 years.
So what is the impact on kids? "Compared to kids in married-parent households, children in single-parent families are more likely to experience poor outcomes," according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which studies children's welfare. "While the research is complex, sometimes contradictory and evolving, mounting evidence indicates that underlying factors − such as strong and stable relationships, parental mental health, socioeconomic status and access to resources − have a greater impact on child success than does family structure alone."
Married parents tend to be older and have more social, educational and economic resources than unmarried parents, said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, a psychology professor at Ohio State University. "It's those differences that cause the differences in child outcomes and not strictly whether or not parents get married before they have kids."
Stability and strong family relationships are important for children's success. Those characteristics can occur in married families, but that's not always the case, she said. "High levels of hostile conflict between parents is detrimental to children's development whether that occurs in the context of marriage or not."
Unmarried parents tend to have more relationship transitions than married ones; it's the number of transitions that can be harmful. "More kids can handle pretty well a divorce or a break-up and then a remarriage. Once you start having lots and lots of those changes, that can be disruptive for children," Schoppe-Sullivan said.
Ultimately, "the evidence suggests that what goes on in families matters a lot more than their structure," she said.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio teaches that children born to unmarried parents are worse off.
