Florida's education commissioner said Friday that Advanced Placement psychology will still be available to students after the College Board said the course was "effectively banned" over a state law that prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The College Board, which develops the courses, said in a news release Thursday that the state Department of Education told school superintendents that content in the course violates HB 1069, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May.
"As our team shared yesterday, the Department of Education is not discouraging districts from teaching AP Psychology. In fact, the Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our course catalog," education commissioner Manny Diaz said in a letter Friday addressed to superintendents.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
The state Board of Education earlier this summer approved a rule that requires teachers to follow a prohibition on sexual orientation and gender identity instruction in high school, unless lessons are required by state academic standards or are “part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.”
The College Board said Friday that the state's guidance on the course was revised and "AP Psychology may be taught in its entirety."
"We hope now that Florida teachers will be able to teach the full course, including content on gender and sexual orientation, without fear of punishment in the upcoming school year," the College Board's statement read.
Local
According to the College Board, more than 28,000 Florida students took the AP Psychology course last school year. The 2023-2024 academic year starts as early as next week for some Florida school districts.
"College Board has suggested that it might withhold the 'AP' designation from this course in Florida, ultimately hurting Florida students. This is especially concerning given that the new school year begins in a week," Diaz wrote in the letter. "I want to be clear, AP Psychology is and will remain in the course code directory making it available to Florida students."
The AP course "asks students to ‘describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.’" This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago,” the College Board previously stated.
