Albuquerque school district officials and recent media reports have "confused" local schools into believing that Best Choice Educational Services' abstinence-only sex-education curriculum is medically inaccurate, according to Mandi Dotson, BCES's peer mentoring director. Consequently, most of the 25 Albuquerque Public Schools that invited BCES to present abstinence-only workshops last year have not renewed the invitation this semester, said Dotson.

In January, APS Board Member Miguel Acosta and some public health educators criticized the BCES curriculum as propagating false information about condom efficacy against STDs. BCES officials denied the charge, countering that their curriculum is based on CDC data and that BCES's federal grant requires the group to teach abstinence-only, not contraception.

The district has not changed its policy of allowing individual schools the choice of augmenting APS' sex-education curriculum with outside abstinence-only speakers, said Rigo Chavez, APS spokesperson. Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt said the district is waiting for state guidance before it recommends any policy changes.

The state Public Education Department is devising content standards on health education that will be released in June, said its spokesperson, Jennifer Chavez. The standards will define what students should know at what age; how to present the information will be left to the local communities to decide, said Chavez.

The state Department of Health is reviewing all abstinence-only materials to determine medical accuracy, said Kristine Suozzi, public health division director. School districts can access that information upon request, she said.

BCES has spoken to about 3,400 students this year, down from 5,000 students last year by this time, said BCES Executive Director David Magruder. Now that fewer schools are inviting BCES, the group may miss its goals and lose grant money next school year, said Dotson. BCES receives $75,000 from the state DOH and $536,000 in direct federal grants.

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