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NORTH CAROLINA


North Carolina Sexuality Education Law and Policy


North Carolina schools are required to teach sexuality, HIV, and sexually transmitted disease (STD) education. Schools must stress the importance of abstinence and students must be taught refusal skills and strategies to handle peer pressure. Curricula must teach that a “mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding diseases transmitted by sexual contact,” including HIV/AIDS.


The law states:


Any instruction concerning the causes of sexually transmitted diseases, including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), in cases where homosexual acts are a significant means of transmission, shall include the legal status of those acts.2

In addition, the law states that:


Students may receive information about where to obtain contraceptives and abortion referral services only in accordance with a local board's policy regarding parental consent. Any instruction concerning the use of contraceptives or prophylactics shall provide accurate statistical information on their effectiveness and failure rates for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), in actual use among adolescent populations and shall explain clearly the difference between risk reduction and risk elimination through abstinence. Contraceptives, including condoms and other devices, shall not be made available or distributed on school property.


The North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction provides several different areas of guidance for schools, including two documents on abstinence programs ¾ Components of a Strong School HIV Policy, Healthful Living Education and Communicable Diseases-Students ¾ and a textbook catalogue. These documents offer model policies, suggested curricula, and content outlines. However, school districts make the ultimate decision on what the education looks like in the classroom and, if a public hearing is held, school districts can provide a more comprehensive program. Each school district must also establish a school health advisory council.


North Carolina law states that, “local boards of education shall adopt policies to provide opportunities either for parents and legal guardians to consent or for parents and legal guardians to withhold their consent to the students' participation in any or all of these programs.” This is referred to as either an “opt-in” or “opt-out” policy.


See North Carolina General Statute 115C-81.