For Parents with Children in NJ Public Schools

For Parents with Children in NJ Public Schools:

Understanding Your Rights as a Parent Concerning New Jersey's Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Curriculum for Public School Students

The New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (CHPE) require all public school students to learn about a broad range of topics, including human relationships, mental health, social well-being, physical fitness, and sexual reproduction.

For many families, these topics are better addressed at home, at a time of the family's choosing, based on the development and readiness of the student. Fortunately, the CHPE curriculum contains an opt-out provision for students whose families do not want their child taking part in some or all of these lessons.

The New Jersey Catholic Conference has developed this guide to help Catholic families of public school students better understand their opt-out rights - - and how to effectively exercise them.

New Jersey statute currently states that:  Any child whose parent or guardian presents to the school a signed statement that any part of instruction in health, family life education, or sex education is in conflict with his or her conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs shall be excused from that portion of the course where such instruction is being given and no penalties as to credit or graduation shall result therefrom. Students excused from instruction must be provided with alternative instructional content and activities aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for CHPE and the local health education curriculum.

All parents/guardians should be notified of the excusal process by the school district. However, no specific procedures are specified, so the notification could be accomplished by letter, email, handbook reference, or website post.

If you are not notified or are unable to find instructions about the excusal process using your district's resources, it is essential that you reach out to your school to inquire, because a lack of response from a parent intending to opt-out would provide the district with the assumption that you actually approve of the child attending the classes. (You have opted-in unless you proactively opt-out.)