The agency recently canceled California’s grant program after giving it 60 days to comply with a June 20 order to remove the content.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ordered 46 U.S. states and territories to remove all educational references to gender ideology from federally funded school grant programs within 60 days, according to an Aug. 26 statement.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an HHS division, wrote letters to the states pointing out curricula and materials that fall outside the scope of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) authorizing statute, and ordered them removed.
The federal government awards grants to state agencies through the PREP program to educate young people on sexual abstinence and contraception. It aims to help prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Failure to comply with federal directives will result in withholding, suspending, or terminating federal PREP funding, the HHS statement said.
“Accountability is coming,” said acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”
Some of the states not included in the statement are California, Florida, Texas, and Virginia.
The ACF terminated California’s PREP grant this past week after the state refused to remove gender ideology from educational materials.
“California has been using taxpayer money to teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body … through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’ It instructed teachers to ‘remind students that some men are born with female anatomy,’” the ACF statement said.
California had been given 60 days to remove the content from schools and had failed to comply. The state issued the warning letter on June 20.
