Rhode Island officials are reconsidering a decision made earlier this year to reject federally funded abstinence-education materials; students in Woonsocket and Warwick will hear that sex should be reserved for marriage, The Boston Globe reported.
The abstinence curriculum, produced by Heritage of Rhode Island (HRI), is designed to teach kids the benefits of abstinence. It reached more than 600 students in two school districts last year. A three-year federal grant provided the funding.
The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against HRI, claiming the program contained religious material and did not meet the state's sex-education standards.
The Rhode Island Department of Education reviewed the material and announced last spring the curriculum would not longer be used because it did not meet standards that require instruction on condom use and the prevention of sexually transmitted disease.
Peter McWalters, the state education commissioner, in a memo to school superintendents last month, announced that a revised version of HRI's curriculum had been approved for use after all.
