Indiana school websites may inadvertently become sex ed resources

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 38-10 Tuesday to promote "transparency" in sexual education by requiring lists of all the instructional material used in each grade, course or class on the subject in grades 4 through 12 be publicly accessible on each school's website.

Indiana schools aren't required to provide human sexuality instruction to their students. But those that do will be subject to the website posting mandate if Senate Bill 128 also is approved by the Republican-controlled House and signed in to law by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.

The measure additionally requires the governing body of each school corporation, charter school and state accredited private school to approve each of the topics taught and materials used in sex education courses, and obligates schools to publicly disclosure the gender of each sex ed course instructor and whether their classes are taught in classrooms of single-gender or all-gender students.

State Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, the sponsor of the plan, said even though Hoosier parents already have a statutory right to inspect sex ed course materials, the extensive public disclosure requirements are needed "so parents can decide whether they want their child to receive that instruction, or not."

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, criticized the legislation as an unfunded mandate on local schools, and questioned the practicality of requiring school boards to approve all the material used in human sexuality courses months before classes start each school year.

"So you want 353 school boards to vote on every piece of material that the teacher is going to use to teach human sexuality in the classroom ... books, PowerPoint presentations, magazines, everything?" asked Senate Democratic Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis.

"Yes," Byrne said.

Ironically, the plan to require Indiana schools to post sex education instructional material on their websites comes three weeks after the same group of lawmakers approved Senate Bill 17, which would compel Hoosiers submit to a mandatory age-verification check to access adult-oriented websites.