Last year, the FCPS school board voted to add gender identity and sexual orientation teaching to the FLE lessons taught to your children starting at grade 7. This change takes effect in this school year's lessons to your child. You have the option to opt your child out of any individual or out of all FLE lessons for the year. Elementary grade K-6 Opt-Out forms (towards bottom of linked page) https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary-family-life-education-fle Middle School grade 7-8 Opt-Out forms https://www.fcps.edu/academics/middle-school-academics-7-8/family-life-education-fle High School grade 9-12 Opt-Out forms https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-academics-9-12/family-life-education-fle The materials are now available on Blackboard for you to review. This includes the script the teacher must follow, as well as all slides and videos shown to our students. All schools will be holding a "Parent Preview" night to view the FLE materials and provide an opportunity to opt-out. I HIGHLY recommend reviewing the many changes for this year, and encourage you to make use of the OPT-OUT forms for any material that goes against your values. I found the content to be biased, objectionable and sometimes offensive. As for me, I am completely opting my children out of the entire year, and will instruct my children myself, about the relevant materials from the perspective of our religious, cultural and personal family values. Sitting down with your child to discuss this personally with them will mean so much more coming from a parent. This also allows you to interject your values, and pass on cultural and/or religious values to your child. Kids in FLE are taught throughout the year, and yearly from K-12. This over-exposes children to materials which desensitizes them to subjects which should remain sensitive topics. An example I find offensive, is in 7th grade when a slide is shown regarding discrimination, the teacher defines it for the students this way: "Discrimination: treating of some people differently than others without any clear reason; treating people unfairly based on a category, such as age, race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identification" Note the addition of "sexual orientation" and "gender identification", as well as the omission of "religion" and "national origin". There is a long list of problems I have with the materials. The FLE content is full of bias like this which I find very questionable by the creators of the curriculum. An alternative non-FLE health instructional program is provided for children who do not take part in FLE instruction, and every effort is made to foster understanding and respect for family choices and to avoid peer pressure for or against participation in the program. A group, Concerned Parents and Educators of Fairfax County (not the same as this petition creator) created a great package with back to school and FLE information at: http://concernedparentsandeducators.org/pip/ Elementary grade K-6 Opt-Out forms (towards bottom of linked page) https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary-family-life-education-fle Middle School grade 7-8 Opt-Out forms https://www.fcps.edu/academics/middle-school-academics-7-8/family-life-education-fle High School grade 9-12 Opt-Out forms https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-academics-9-12/family-life-education-fle NOTE: At the state level, the FLE program prepared is done with great care to teach sensitive subjects in a non-objectionable way. FCPS has not made the same effort to the topics where FCPS deviates from the state program.