Kalispell parents to get notice of sex ed classes

Parents of students attending Kalispell Public Schools can expect to be notified when human sexuality instruction takes place at least 48 hours in advance if the class, event, or assembly wasn’t addressed in an annual notice.

This follows the school board’s unanimous approval to revise policy 2335 on health enhancement instruction and parent notification to comply with a law, Senate Bill 99, passed in 2021.

Prior to that, the middle school and high schools sent annual notices to parents of students taking health/sex education classes, which covered, according to the previous version of the policy covered grade-appropriate instruction on “parts of the body, reproduction and related topics,” including sexually transmitted diseases/infections education and prevention and allowing them to opt out.

Policy 2335 was adopted by KPS in 2000 and last updated in 2012.

With the passage of Senate Bill 99, all Montana schools, and grade levels, are required to notify parents annually when classes or events on human sexuality will be taught or held. The 48-hour notice is required in instances where human sexuality instruction or materials are introduced during the school year that hasn’t been addressed in the annual notice with the intent to allow parents to excuse their student from attending.

The law also prohibits schools from allowing any abortion services provider from offering instruction or course materials.

According to SB 99, human sexuality includes “intimate relationships, human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexually transmitted infections, sexual acts, sexual orientation, gender identity, abstinence, contraception, or reproductive rights and responsibilities.”

Kalispell Superintendent Micah Hill said the broader definition has the potential to affect all subjects.

“It could be literature, it could be your health class, it could be anatomy and physiology — anything that comes up,” Hill said at the Oct. 11 board meeting.

It also applies to all staff — teachers, administrators, librarians, counselors, school nurses and guests, for example.

“This has a lot of vague territory,” trustee Lance Isaak said.

Trustee Will Hiatt asked Hill how the law will impact staff workloads.

“It’s a huge burden,” Hill said, with the addition of a 48-hours notice.

Isaak said he’s heard concerns from teachers on what to do if a student comes to them with a question related to a human sexuality topic. The law has raised many “what if” questions as the district works on what information to include in the notices. Health curriculum and materials purchasing is scheduled for review in the 2024-25 school year.

“If I don’t know the answer to them, I send them to our legal counsel and say, ‘What if’ and they say, ‘Here’s what it means, you either have to do that, or you don’t.’ So we’ve been giving very clear guidance to our building administrators, who are then conveying that information back to our staff on those types of questions,” Hill said.

Hill said the district is taking a cautious and upfront approach to sending out notices by

“… encouraging our staff that, if in doubt send it out. What that’s doing is telling parents this is something that may come up; you are more than welcome to come in and inspect the curriculum at any time, which they’ve always been allowed to do, and it’s just an extra step,” he said.

Trustee Lloyd Bondy asked what kind of training educators receive related to sex education. According to the district policy, educators presenting the instruction receive continued training on strategies and techniques while “other staff members not involved in direct instruction, but who have contact with students, will receive basic information about HIV/AIDS and other STD/STI’s and instruction in use of universal precautions when dealing with body fluids.”

As to repercussions for not sending out a notice in a timely fashion, “This is kind of playing out in Montana and some other communities right now,” Hill said.

THE DECISION to update the policy follows recent communication from the Montana School Boards Association (MTSBA) to assist schools in answering questions about complying with the law. MTSBA also supplied model notices and opt-out forms.

This was the school board’s first reading of the policy update. Usually, new policies/updates go through three readings before approval, however, one reading is allowed when changes are based on law.

“So even if the board said, ‘You know, we’re not adopting this policy at all, we still have to follow the law, so it’s kind of a no-brainer for us,” Hill said.

He noted MTSBA’s model forms were provided for information and not part of the policy adoption.

“We did not specifically ask that those be adopted based on the recommendation of the policy committee and the administration. They’re pretty verbose, but we are working on what those communications look like to our families and parents,” Hill said.

In a later phone interview with the Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell Education Association President Lynne Rider agreed that one of the challenges for teachers will be looking at content to determine when to notify families.

“It’s hard to take such a broad mandate and whittle it down on what it means to you as a teacher in your content era,” Rider said.

One of the difficulties may lie in predicting when a human sexuality topic as defined in SB 99 comes up incidentally in classroom discussion.

“The hard thing for teachers is going to be when an impromptu conversation comes up. You can’t control what students want to talk about. If you have a good conversation going, you can guide them and lead them, but sometimes it takes some crazy turns to guide students back to the theme. Those discussions would really have to be put on hold and parents would need to get some sort of contact,”

Challenges aside, Rider said the policy revision provides another opportunity to encourage communication between educators and parents about their child’s education.

“We can look at this as a roadblock — or a way to increase communication with our families and really get them involved in the classroom,” she said.

“When we teach, we know we’re [working] in conjunction with families and parents,” she said. “I think we really encourage parents to come and look at the curriculum and to come into the classroom.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.