New Jersey's Sex Ed Report Card

In New Jersey, we know a lot of great sex education is being provided, but we also know that sex education can be underfunded, not prioritized, and often politicized. Based on the findings of New Jersey’s Sex Ed Report Card, there are multiple areas for improvement.

A coalition of parents, community members, and advocacy organizations serving as a subcommittee of the Thrive NJ Coalition have worked together to create New Jersey’s Sex Ed Report Card. Our goal was to explore the need for additional investment, tools, training, and accountability to strengthen sex education in New Jersey. This report includes recommendations for improvement based upon the needs of students, educators, schools, and parents.

To gather this information, we created three surveys: one for parents and guardians, one for teachers and school administrators, and one for the students themselves. Coalition partners and community members conducted outreach between May and July 2019 in order to obtain survey responses from parents, students, and educators at New Jersey public schools.

Certain overarching themes were evident upon our analysis of these responses:
  1. Sex education is not provided in a consistent manner from district to district, school to school, or even teacher to teacher.
  2. Schools are still using ineffective and stigmatizing materials in their sex education classes.
  3. Teachers want more training, guidance, and resources to teach effective ​sex education.
  4. Parents overwhelmingly support sex education and want more involvement in their children’s sex education at school.
  5. Parents and students want more time spent on sex education in school.
  6. Sex education programs must cover a wider range of topics than currently covered, especially LGBTQ identities and sexual assault and consent.

Overall, students and parents gave New Jersey’s sex education a C grade in our survey. We can do better than that. We are excited to work with teachers, administrators, elected officials, and community partners to ensure that sex education in New Jersey is the gold standard for sex education across the country. Together, we can be a leader to help improve public health outcomes and make a positive impact on the health and lives of New Jersey's young people.

Download New Jersey's Sex Ed Report Card:

Key Recommendations

  1. Remove the requirement in state statute that sex education programs and curricula must stress abstinence. 
  2. Remove the requirement in state statute that sex education programs and curricula must highlight failure rates of contraceptives.
  3. Provide recommended curricula for sex education for all schools at each grade level, and strengthen accountability measures for sex education standards.
  4. Establish a database or widely accessible source of high-quality sex education materials. 
  5. Establish a system to monitor and assess the actual content being delivered in classrooms.
  6. Allow for more classroom hours on a regular basis dedicated to teaching sex education. 
  7. Increase financial resources for sex education teacher training and professional development. 
  8. Collaborate with parents and partner to advocate for increased funding and resources for sex education programming.
  9. Provide statewide standards that include specific content guidelines about LGBTQ issues at age-appropriate grade levels. 
  10. Utilize a trauma-informed framework throughout sex education programs, and train all school staff in educating with a trauma-informed approach.
  11. Ensure that all students in all schools are receiving sex education, including students with differing abilities.