Montana DPHHS will modify sex education curriculum to remove ‘gender ideology’ content

Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services will remove references to gender identity, and transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in federally-funded sex education programs following a federal threat to pull grants. 

The Trump administration in August demanded 46 states and territories remove all references to “gender ideology” in a federally-funded program that provides health education to adolescents, or risk losing grants. 

Montana has 60 days to remove the flagged content and submit a copy of modified materials for approval, or could forfeit up to $539,601 according to Department of Health and Human Services data. 

Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for DPHHS, told the Daily Montanan in an email that the department did not develop the program’s educational materials, and would comply with the federal request. 

“In the coming weeks, we will ensure that the curriculum is modified by our grantees in accordance with ACF guidance,” Ebelt said. “In addition, the Gianforte administration does not believe that minor children should be taught gender ideology.”

The Personal Responsibility Education Program was authorized by Congress in 2010 to help reduce teen pregnancies to the tune of $75 million annually. The programs are administered on a state level and are expected to be “evidence-based, provide education on both abstinence and contraceptive use, and educate youth on at least three of six adulthood preparation topics,” according to the federal Administration for Children and Families.  

Earlier this year, the administration requested each state, tribal and competitive grant recipient to provide curriculum and programmatic materials related to their respective PREP grant programs “for a medical accuracy review” and program compliance. 

“ACF has a statutory duty to ensure the content being taught in federally funded PREP programs is medically accurate and age appropriate,” ACF Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a press statement in April. “Parents have a right to know what their children are being taught, and the American people deserve transparency about how their tax dollars are being spent.”

After reviewing the programs, ACF requested 46 states and territories, including Montana, update their programmatic materials to remove references to “gender ideology” or risk forfeiting their federal funding. 

California already lost its grant — worth $12.5 million — after the state refused to comply with the orders. 

In Montana, the Department of Public Health and Human Services administers a PREP program called Optimal Health for Montana Youth. 

The program defines optimal health as encompassing five different areas — physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual — and the program uses that framework to approach sex education and teen pregnancy prevention. 

According to DPHHS, local county public health nurses and educators work with schools to teach healthy relationship and communication skills, adolescent development, and other life skills through the Optimal Health program, and around 1,400 students are served through the program annually. 

An ACF overview of Montana’s PREP program indicates that the target population is “American Indian and white youth, ages 10 to 19, in the juvenile justice system, alternative schools, Job Corps and youth who are pregnant/parenting under 21 years of age.” The curriculum is implemented in schools, reservations, juvenile justice, addiction services and community based settings in Silver Bow, Custer, Rosebud, Deer Lodge, Flathead and Missoula Counties. 

In a letter to DHPPS Community Health Section Supervisor Darla Dexter, Acting Secretary Gradison stated that references to gender ideology fell outside the scope of authorized subjects. 

Among the specific issues the federal government found in Montana’s curriculum was a recommendation against dividing classes by gender that stated “it can cause trauma for transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary youth;” emphasizing how “teens of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to learn how to draw the line to resist sexual pressure and protect themselves;” and discussions on preferred pronouns, and respecting the differences in each individual, including their gender identity and gender expression. 

The letter states that such references are “both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects,” allowed in PREP curriculum. 

“The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute and any expenditures associated with gender ideology are not allowable, reasonable, or allocable to the PREP grant,” the letter states. 

Previous curricula for Montana’s PREP programs had been approved by the federal government, which Gradison described as an error in the prior administration.