People with intellectual and developmental disabilities have the right to access appropriate and comprehensive sexuality and relationship education (SRE), but face a long history of exclusion from SRE in the USA due to myths about the sexuality of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, biases against people with disabilities, and…

Many sexuality educators in the United States have noted that current sex education models do not meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body, and they have begun advocating for anti-racist sex education. Many sexuality instructors, however, work in public schools that require the use of prevention-focused, evidence-based sexuality…

This lesson plan is designed to help participants learn how to partner with their healthcare providers to improve their sexual health. This lesson plan describes how to achieve this goal with cis-gender Black adolescent girls and adult women (ages 16 and older).

When seeking a more nuanced understanding of sexuality, participants can benefit from hands-on activities that provide experience with the limitation of descriptors and social shaping of definitions. In many sexuality education contexts, participants enter the learning environment with a narrow definition of sexuality. The following game provides…

Adolescents are influenced by the type, length and quality of the connections shared with different people throughout their lifespan. Relationships with peers, friends, and adults help to shape knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs related to health. Recognizing healthy or unhealthy characteristics allow youth to strengthen relationships and…

Dialogue journaling is a technique that is useful for enhancing the goals of sexual health promotion and HIV/STI prevention programs with 14-to 17-year-old at-risk youth. Included is a detailed lesson plan on how to implement dialogue journaling in this context, a discussion of advantages and concerns about using them, and future implications for…

Sex education is almost as sensitive a topic in public schooling as is the imposition of high-stakes testing. Both typically claim to be value-free contributions to the development of the student's cognitive, psychological and sometimes even moral maturity. Ironically each seems to short-change students in all three areas of development. The focus…

"Who's Responsible?" is an educational experience designed to help participants explore a chain of events that can lead to a teen pregnancy. In this activity, participants read a scenario in which the main character has a boyfriend who would like to have sex with her without using a condom. After attempting to talk about sex and contraception with…

Whether you are someone new to the field of sex education, trying to start a library or resource center on adolescent sexual health, or an old pro, this guide should give you a basic orientation to what's available to support your work. These resources are important to advancing positive attitudes toward adolescent sexual health and the author…

Adolescence is an important time in human development. Teenagers spend much time questioning their core belief structures and developing the foundations of their identity. For students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), this path of development is difficult in American schools because of strongly held homophobic…

Understanding one's sexuality is a lifelong process. This pamphlet outlines developmental markers for what children need to know about sexuality, from infancy through adolescence. These guideposts can help parents, caregivers, and educators decide when a discussion of a given subject is age-appropriate. They may be particularly helpful for those…

Twenty-five years since the onset of HIV/AIDS, young people aged 15-24 now make up half of new HIV infections. This paper advocates for comprehensive sexuality education as an effective panacea to reverse this, with teachers stepping up and embracing their role as sexuality educators. The exploration of this challenge is informed by a small-scale…

Human relationships and sexuality programs are a relatively new part of school curriculums, and rely on volunteer teachers who believe that this kind of knowledge is important for students to have. This collection of background readings, teaching strategies, and learning activities is put forward to try to make those teachers' jobs a little…

This curriculum unit provides educators with 10 lessons designed to make sexuality education culturally relevant for Latino youth in grades five through eight. While affirming the traditions and characteristics of Latino families and cultures, this structured curriculum introduces sexuality as a lifelong process that goes beyond physical intimacy.…

This document contains an educational resource guide designed to help educators provide relevant education about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to secondary school students in compliance with the Texas State Board of Education Rules for Curriculum. The guide, taking a pragmatic approach that emphasizes a prevention/intervention strategy,…