Giving Compass' Take:

· Lauren Barack discusses modern approaches to sexual education and explains how it has expanded to cover topics like consent and social media's effect on body image.

· How often should sexual education curriculums be reviewed and adjusted? How can funders help to improve sex education programs? 

· Learn how states are teaching sexual education. 

In its efforts to revise its human sexuality class, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in Texas has asked parents, students and even the community for input, holding focus groups and sending out surveys. While certain topics came up seemed clearly marked for the 21st century — such as the impact of social media on body image —others opened students' eyes to everyone involved, including topics related to consent.

While National Sexuality Education Standards — created by the Future of Sex Education organization as guidance for setting sex ed curriculum — says students should be able to define consent by grades 9-12, only eight states require sex education classes to mention consent as of September.

Knowing how to handle your emotions when someone says "no," however, wasn't part of the curriculum, Kathy Ryan, AISD’s director of academics, told Education Dive.

“As soon as we read it, we were like, ‘Of course, we need to teach that,'” she said. “We need to have the skills, tools and language to say, ‘No, I am not comfortable.’ On the flip side, we also need to have the skills, tools and language to accept when someone said, ‘No,’ in an appropriate way, and move forward.”

Read the full article about the modern approaches to sex ed by Lauren Barack at Education Dive.