Health Educators’ Perceptions of Factors related to the Implementation of School-Based Sexual Education

Mississippi is one of the leading states in both teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infection rates. In an effort to limit these rates, Mississippi passed House Bill 999 in 2011. This bill mandated sexual education in public schools throughout the state. However, since the passage of the bill there have been many factors that impact the way this curriculum is taught. To better understand these factors, how they affect educators, and how schools are addressing them, this study surveyed educators who taught some form of sex-related education curriculum from 2011 to 2016. The findings show that educators believe many factors are very important to the presentation of sex related curriculum, however, there are some significant gaps between their perceptions of the importance of specific factors and how well schools are addressing them—specifically regarding teacher training and professional development and the content of the curriculum being taught