Some sexual health education experts, advocacy groups and teachers say new provincial approval requirements have left educators with inadequate options to teach Alberta’s health curriculum.
Since new laws took effect in September, Alberta’s education ministry must approve every worksheet, video, PowerPoint presentation, activity, pamphlet or external presentation that educators use to teach sexual health outcomes, or deliver lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity.
Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has said the government is screening to ensure resources and presenters align with the curriculum and are age-appropriate.
Teachers and sex education advocates who spoke to CBC say the changes have put a chill on teaching sex education that has led to watered-down lessons that may be inadequate to help students protect themselves from infections, pregnancy or abuse.
“I feel like this really has the potential to cause great harm that we don’t know of, but that we will be forced to navigate in the years to come,” said Jamie Anderson, a former teacher who has taught sex ed, and is now an education PhD candidate at the University of Calgary.
The new rules are in one of three gender policy laws the Alberta government shielded from court challenges in 2025 by invoking the notwithstanding clause.
As of Jan. 26, Alberta’s education ministry had approved 164 resources for use in these lessons, according to Garrett Koehler, senior press secretary to Minister Nicolaides. Koehler said no resources are “rejected,” but are sent back to the applicant to be revised and resubmitted.
He would not say how many resources have been submitted in total.
Fewer than 10 per cent of the resources the government has reviewed were returned for revision, according to the ministry.
“The focus of this process is quality and alignment with the curriculum – not the volume of submissions at any given time,” he said.
More than 30 organizations have applied to be third-party presenters for sexual health education in provincial schools.
As of late January, the government had approved 11 organizations as presenters. Each organization is limited to presenting on select topics to specific grades in line with the curriculum.
There are no external parties approved to present to Grade 5 or 6 students, and only Primary Care Alberta is approved to present to fourth-graders in the central and Calgary zones.
The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) has submitted teacher-created resources to the government on an ongoing basis for provincial approval, spokesperson Kim Smith said in an email.
About 80 resources were submitted and the government has approved 20, she said.
The government had said it intended to make approval decisions within 90 days of submission.
Smith said no EPSB resources were approved within 90 days.
Neither Edmonton or Calgary’s Catholic school divisions submitted any sexual health education resources for government approval, spokespeople said. This is because material used to teach about religion is exempt from government vetting.
In a list of 118 approved resources that was published in November, Anderson said about a quarter of them aren’t publicly available. Alberta Education published an updated list in late January that added some resources.
Most resources are limited to teaching particular concepts in select grades. Some are outdated, some are American, and some would require schools to purchase them, Anderson said.
He said the list may appear lengthy, but many resources are repeated for multiple grades and topics.
For example, one two-minute video about digital sexual extortion is either the only approved resource, or one of a handful of resources, approved to teach students from grades 7 to 12 about the risks of sextortion.
Another video, that’s under three minutes long and a decade old, is proposed as a resource for teaching about consent for students from ages 11 to 18.
As of late January, 13 of the outcomes students in grades 4-12 are expected to learn had just one resource approved on the public list.
Anderson believes few teachers will have the energy and persistence to submit their slide shows, activities and videos for government approval.
Teachers say new limits left lessons sanitized
CBC News interviewed three teachers who teach sexual health education in large, urban school divisions.
CBC has agreed to keep their identities confidential because of concerns that speaking publicly could risk their careers.
Two of the teachers had tried submitting slide shows, activities, tests and textbook excerpts for government approval that they had been using for years.
One teacher said some of the slide presentations were approved, but they had to make changes, including removing references to masturbation and the morning-after pill.
When the teacher taught the sexual health portion of Career and Life Management (CALM) this year, they estimated they were able to include about a quarter of the material they had taught in previous years.
The lessons couldn’t address sexual orientation or gender identity because those concepts aren’t in the curriculum, the teacher said.
A Grade 8 teacher abandoned trying to get the government to approve their slide deck after officials came back with increasingly granular questions. They said the government does not scrutinize lessons in any other subject.
Looking at what they said were inadequate government-approved resources, the teacher told administrators they would not teach sex education this year.
Health agency resources remain unapproved
The legislation requires teachers to obtain opt-in consent from parents or guardians to include students in sexual health lessons, along with any lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity. Teachers must give at least 30 days’ notice of what they plan to teach.
Although the education ministry said it is working to approve more resources and an updated list would be published soon, another junior high teacher said the requirement to give parents notice means teachers need access to resources further in advance.
Alberta is the only province where students have to sign up for sex education. YWCAs in Alberta have launched a campaign to encourage parents to choose to opt-in.
A Grade 9 teacher said as the approved list stood, they did not see enough resources to fill the four-to-five hours they usually spend on sexual health education.
The teacher was surprised to find the provincial website teachingsexualhealth.ca had been mostly stripped of its content. That website is now run by Primary Care Alberta.
As of the last week of January, the website, which has existed since at least 2002, had no approved activities or resources for Grade 5. Learning activities for Grades 6 through 9 were listed as “coming soon.”
Lesson plans and activities previously produced for use are listed on a “legacy resources” page, and it says Alberta teachers aren’t authorized to use them in class.
All the teachers said weakened sexual health education could lead to more teens with sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs), more unplanned pregnancies, and more potential for sexual exploitation, violence and abuse.
The Calgary Board of Education is reliant on teachingsexualhealth.ca for resources, spokesperson Joanne Anderson said in a statement.
CBE, Alberta’s largest school division, did not submit any resources for government approval, because it relies on Primary Care Alberta to provide them on that website, she said.
In a statement, Primary Care Alberta spokesperson Cam Heke said the health agency is working with Alberta Education to review and approve resources, and material is posted online as soon as it is approved.
The education ministry has approved 39 resources on the site so far, but would not say how many are pending approval.
“While these materials are being reviewed, educators can use the large list of already approved curriculum-based sexual education resources found online, which has more than enough resources for all grade levels,” Heke wrote.
Gaps leave lessons insufficient: experts
When the government introduced legislation last year that added the vetting requirements, the rationale was to increase transparency and ensure resources were more consistent.
Jen Gilbert, chair of curriculum, teaching and learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies of Education at the University of Toronto, said Alberta’s new vetting rules are among the strictest in Canada, and strip teachers of professional judgment.
The requirements may prompt teachers to avoid some topics to prevent complaints from parents, Gilbert said. Students are then likely to turn to other, less reliable sources for information, like pornography, the Internet, or social media, she said.
Students may also feel more comfortable asking external presenters about sensitive topics, rather than asking their regular teacher, Gibson said.
“We’re really abdicating our responsibility to offer students an accurate, unbiased, inclusive education about sexuality and gender,” she said.
After reviewing the approved lists of resources and external presenters published in November, Gilbert said references to 2SLGBTQ+ identity and gender have been “erased, except when absolutely necessary.”
She said there’s also a lack of resources tailored to Indigenous students and those with disabilities.
Key providers of 2SLGBTQ+ sexual health education were also missing from the list of presenters, she said.
Gilbert said these omissions send a troubling message to young people.
“They feel as though their identity itself is under attack, like they’re somehow themselves a risk at school – that somehow, just their presence is controversial,” she said. “That’s just as damaging as not getting access to the sexual health information.”
Jessica Wood, director of research and policy development for the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN), said Alberta has approved scant resources for preventing abuse and exploitation in the early grades, and 2SLGBTQ+-inclusive material is missing in all years.
SIECCAN works with educators and health professionals to help them deliver evidence-based and comprehensive sexual health education and conducts research.
“If we’re talking about healthy relationships and making decisions about relationships, teachers need a variety of tools to teach about that,” she said.
With a limited number of groups authorized to present to students, Wood questions whether approved organizations are able to handle the demand, or to travel to parts of the province where local presenters are not approved.
She said she was surprised to see some long-standing Alberta groups missing from the list.
Six approved organizations are in Edmonton, one is in Calgary, two are in Red Deer and one is in Grande Prairie.
Long-standing presenters seek government approval
Among the organizations yet unapproved is the Centre for Sexuality in Calgary, which has been delivering school presentations for more than 50 years. Its CEO declined an interview while their applications are ongoing.
Also struggling to be approved is the Fyrefly Institute, a non-profit 2SLGBTQ+ research institute at the University of Alberta.
Rural Fyrefly in Schools co-ordinator Star Oldring says the organization has offered school presentations in Alberta for decades and was doing hundreds of presentations each year, until September.
The institute applied to be a presenter, and submitted two presentations for approval.
Oldring said the government sent conflicting feedback for both presentations, and Fyrefly isn’t sure how to proceed.
“We are in a position of being left to wonder, what is behind the decision making?” they said.
Oldring said the new limitations are taking choices away from parents who want their children to receive a comprehensive sexual health education.
They pointed to increased suicide attempt rates among queer and trans youth in U.S. states that have enacted policies limiting 2SLGBTQ+ rights and they are concerned they could see similar outcomes in Alberta.
Koehler, the education minister’s senior press secretary, said the vetting requirements ensure resources will meet consistent standards.
“This approach reflects extensive community feedback, research on practices in other provinces, and the need for greater transparency for families,” Koehler wrote.
Parents, teachers and school authorities can be confident that Alberta students will have access to “high quality, evidence-aligned materials,” he said.
