The Personal Responsibility Education Program — or PREP — covers a wide range of topics, for example sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention.
It also has materials that explain gender identity, including what it means to identify as transgender.
Jorge Reyes Salinas, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ civil rights group Equality California, said the state program is being misrepresented in its depth.
“I think that's what is being shaped as this gender identity education or propaganda, but it's really about the overall well-being of students and not just one specific group,” he said.
PREP reaches children experiencing homelessness, in the juvenile justice system or in foster care. It is also used in some schools, but not many — about 13,000 students in the state participate each year.
Reyes Salinas added that it’s important for kids to learn about gender identity, whatever theirs is.
“You don't have to be part of a community to be able to learn about the community, to be able to understand that they are part of the world that you live in, whether you like it or not, and it's important to know how to respect everyone,” he said.
$6 million for the program through a federal grant.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting the state make changes within 60 days, or it would cut the funding.
“The disturbing gender ideology content in California’s PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose,” Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said in a statement.
The move doesn’t impact sexual health education more broadly in the state, but HHS said it is reviewing grant recipients in other states for similar content. The program includes grantees in 51 states and territories.
“We are reviewing the letter, which we were first made aware of via Fox News, not HHS,” said Elana Ross, a spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office. “To be clear: this is NOT California’s K-12 sex education curriculum.”
There is no set curriculum for sexual health across California. Still, that school districts provide accurate and inclusive sex education, once in middle school and again in high school.
The California Department of Public Health also said in a statement that it is reviewing the letter.
“The sexual education curricula implemented by CA PREP-funded agencies are medically accurate, comprehensive, and age-appropriate,” it added in the emailed statement. “The curricula have been federally pre-approved, in accordance with federal regulations.”
The Newsom administration did not say how it plans to respond.