Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has signed a law mandating school districts to offer sex education, the Clarion Ledger reports. Until now, Mississippi school districts didn’t have to offer sex education courses. The courses will be abstinence-only with the opportunity for each district to adopt an abstinence-plus curriculum addressing safer sex. The new curriculum has to be adopted by the end of June 2012. Each district must tell the Department of Education what type of sex ed is being taught; that information will be used in future studies to determine which curriculum works best. State government officials are hoping this will help combat the high rates of teen pregnancy and reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections.

To read the Clarion Ledger article, click here.