Begin by finding out your own state's relevant laws (for Washington's laws, click here).

Then, call your district's administration office and ask for copies of its policies and procedures (written and unwritten) regarding:  

• controversial issues and answering students' questions (Are there topics you wouldn't be allowed to address, even in response to a question?),
• the teaching of abstinence (Is there particular wording you are obligated to use? A philosophy you are expected to convey?)
• guest speakers (Is there a preferred or approved list of presenters you may call upon? Is there a procedure for having someone approved?)
• the reporting of child abuse (Who must you inform –- in addition to CPS -- when a child self discloses or when you have reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused?)
• parent preview/notification/permission for sexuality education (Are you responsible for making these arrangements or is it done on a building or district level? Must you have positive permission from parents, or is it considered sufficient to allow parents to excuse their children?),
• explaining/showing condoms and other birth control methods (Is it permissible to show your class each method or just a photo or drawing of it? Does your district frown on the use of fruits and vegetables in demonstrations of condoms? Are you permitted to have your students practice the skill of proper condom use on their fingers?)
• making referrals for health and social services (Is there a pre-approved list of community resources to which you may refer students? Is there a procedure for approving new resources?)
• teaching in single gender or co-ed groups (Does your district have a preference or is it a building-level, or classroom-level decision?)
• curriculum and supplementary written and aydui-visual resources (Which curricula and videos are approved? Is it permissible to supplement them with newspaper and magazine stories and television clips? Is there a procedure for approving new resources?). 

Suppose the policies are, in your opinion, not in the best interest of your students. It is perfectly permissible to lobby the administration and the board to change the policies. It is also permissible  to poll your students' parents and to encourage them to express their opinions to the administration and the board.

It is dangerous and unprofessional to defy the policies. Don't. Any short-term benefit to your students would be totally outweighed by your being sanctioned, so that you couldn't teach sexuality in the future.

As long as you have followed Rule A, you have nothing to hide.

Start by sharing with your principal the district's sexuality curriculum and any supplementary materials you anticipate using. Take a few minutes to explain to him or her your goals and objectives, your philosophy, and the way in which you plan to address values.

Next, inform parents that your unit is coming up. This can be done, in some districts, as an ordinary part of back-to-school night in the fall. Or, in other districts, requires specific notification by mail. In Washington State, whatever system is used, parents are entitled to at least a 30 days' notice, at least for the HIV/AIDS sessions, and a chance to preview the materials.

However you inform them, invite parents to talk with you about any concerns they may have. You are legally entitled to decline their observing (because parents' presence on such a sensitive topic can clearly "disrupt the...learning activity") but we don't recommend turning parents away. Allowing parents to visit is the most straightforward way to say, "I have nothing to hide." And it almost inevitably allays their fears, especially once they see your climate-setting lesson. That's the lesson in which you establish such things as the purpose and agenda of your unit, ground rules, and a tone of seriousness and honesty.

Finally, never, never, never, tell students not to tell their families what you have said. If you wouldn't want parents to hear it, don't say it in the first place. One way to remind yourself of this caveat is to always imagine an invisible parent or principal in the back of the room. No secrets!

So, you want to shock them into paying attention and behaving with uncharacteristic maturity? That's fine, but do it the right way. Do it by showing them more respect than they are used to at school.

Shock them by using sophisticated medical language they don't yet understand and promising that you'll translate as you go, so that, by the end of the unit they will be conversant in it. Do it by admitting to the lousy things our generation has done to theirs, such as trying to sell them cosmetics and body-fixing products they don't need, in order to make a buck. Do it by admitting that the same self-destructive decision-making folks often accuse adolescents of engaging in also plagues an awful lot of adults. Do it by having high academic expectations and avoiding "busy-work."

Don't shock your students by making crude jokes at the expense of some group of people (women, gays, teens, men, etc.). Don't shock them by using slang yourself, except when you read a question verbatim or translate from the familiar to the unfamiliar. And then, do it with a serious facial expression, not a smirk. Don't shock them by suddenly changing the standards from academic to recreational. Those tactics are counterproductive.

Some controversial issues are essential components of sexuality education. You would have to do a really skeletal, inadequate and unprofessional job to avoid those issues. But how you address them will make all the difference in whether you help families communicate and support students? character development. We recommend using the Values Question Protocol from the Family Life And Sexual Health curriculum.

It is even more important to keep lesson plans when you are teaching about sexual health than when you are teaching other topics. If you invite guest speakers, take notes on their presentations. If you have students generate written questions, hang on to them for a couple of months, in case you need to document that a particular conversation was student-initiated, not your personal "agenda." If you can arrange the luxury of a team teaching situation, that's not only preferable in terms of enhancing student learning, but it also provides another pair of ears, protecting you from students? misinterpretations of what you may have said.