Under a law passed by the 2022 Virginia Legislature, Virginia school districts must notify parents whenever instructional materials include sexually explicit content and must provide parents alternative, non-explicit materials if requested.

The Code of Virginia § 22.1-16.8. requires school divisions to:

• Ensure advance parental notification (30 days) of the intended use of any instructional materials with sexually explicit content in their child’s education.
• Ensure parents have the ability to inspect and review instructional materials that are identified as including sexually explicit content.
• Ensure parents have the opportunity to select for their child the option of alternative instructional materials and related academic activities that do not contain sexually explicit content.

Norfolk Public Schools is sharing with parents/guardians and the community, those materials that can be considered as containing sexually explicit content based on the review of materials conducted by teachers and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The division’s instructional materials undergo review and this list is updated annually.

The following instructional materials have been deemed to contain sexually explicit content:

History/Social Science: AP Psychology

• Myers' Psychology for AP (2^nd ed.), Bedford Freeman Worth
• Unit VIII: Motivation, Stress, and Emotion
• Module 39: Sexual Motivation

Health and Physical Education

• Family Life Education unit has anatomical pictures of the body with the correct terms associated with each body part.

High School English

English 10

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
• The Kite Runner
• A Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier

English 11

• The Color Purple
• The Hate U Give
• Angela’s Ashes

English 12

• The Bluest Eye
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Their Eyes Were Watching God

AP English Literature

• Crime and Punishment
• The Awakening
• The Handmaid’s Tale

Parental Notification

For any course that includes sexually explicit instructional materials, the teacher will:

• Identify in the course syllabus all instructional materials for the school year containing sexually explicit content.
• Complete the Parent/Legal Guardian Form for Instructional Materials document for each identified sexually explicit resource, prepare an electronic version to be emailed to parents, and make copies to be sent home with students.
• Identify an alternative instructional resource for each resource deemed to be sexually explicit.
• Review the Parent/Legal Guardian Form for Instructional Materials forms returned by a parent/guardian and assign alternative instructional resources as required to meet the needs of students and expectations of parents/guardians.