Connecticut evaluating all options after Trump directive to remove gender identity from sex ed

Livi Stanford, Hartford Courant on Sep 2, 2025

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HARTFORD, Conn. — State Attorney General William Tong is evaluating all legal options after the Trump administration demanded that 46 states including Connecticut remove references to gender identity and expression from sex ed materials from a federally funded program or risk losing $1.5 million in funding.

“Political micromanagement of sex-ed is the oldest story in the book,” Tong said. “It never ages well and never serves our kids. But threatening to defund our schools over this is completely unhinged and we’re not going to let Trump steal money from our kids.”

Tong joins other education union officials in criticizing the directive, stating it is an attempt to censor education. Health officials are still reviewing the directive to gauge its overall impact.

The educational materials are administered to schools through the state Department of Public Health. Districts are not mandated to use the educational materials and each school districresponsible for its own sex ed curriculum.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program awards grants to state agencies to “educate young people on both abstinence and contraception with efforts toward preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,” according to the Family and Youth Services Bureau. A fact sheet from the Administration for Children & Families on the program is no longer available, with a “page not found” error shown on the page.

Matthew Cerrone, spokesman for the Connecticut State Department of Education said “The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) is a Department of Public Health (DPH) program and does not pertain to any CSDE curriculum or curriculum framework. The program is administered by the DPH through the federal Administration for Children and Families and does not impact school districts at this time.”

Brittany Schaefer, communications director for DPH, said that currently PREP does not have any contracts and is not performing any activities with schools.

“DPH is not currently funding any activities in schools or elsewhere with PREP funds,” she said. “The contracts that were funded through PREP expired in September 2024. DPH has been in the process of planning to solicit bids for the next round of contracts. The Request for Proposals for those contracts has not yet been issued. We are currently reviewing the letter from ACF to determine how best to proceed.”

Gov. Ned Lamont’s office said “we are currently in the process of reviewing and assessing actions and impact, while ensuring the health and wellbeing of our state.”

Kate Dias, president of the The Connecticut Education Association, said that the directive will impact all high school students in health courses if DPH tells educators they have to follow the rule across the state. She said she is still waiting for direction on how teachers can respond to the directive.

She said it is a step in the wrong direction.

“It is going to make a group of people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome,” she said. “We have worked really hard in the field of education to have these conversations in a spirit of curiosity and learning. When we talk about diminishing the presence of all of the information, it has a chilling effect. It has a sense of there is something bad here or something that we don’t want you to know. I don’t think ignorance has served anyone well.”

Dias added: “When we start censoring education we diminish the ability of our children to really thrive, to be inquisitive and thoughtful and I think that is a shame.

“It is important whatever we make in terms of decisions is made from a place of knowledge and understanding so people can make reasonable conclusions,” she said. “It is disappointing. It is hurtful. We have tried to build curriculum that broadens understanding, that invites conversation, that invites growth. To consistently be pushed back on that paired with some of the book banning conversations, these are things where we are talking about stifling knowledge and understanding and that is not the society that I think we should be building.”

Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said she also has concerns with the directive.

“If we have students that identify different than male or female they should feel included in our school community,” she said. “I never like anything that excluded any student.”

Melissa Combs, founder of the Out Accountability Project, said a chilling effect is already taking place related to Trump administration attacks on education.

“I don’t think it is unreasonable to believe that districts have already taken steps to remove things from their current curriculum related to race, ethnicity and disability status and anything related to LGBTQ,” she said.

“Schools should not be making politically motivated decisions about curriculum. It fails students. Estimates for the percentages of students who identify as LGBTQ+ range from 10 to 22%. Failing to provide adequate sexual education to up to 22% of young people is a risky public health stance that worsens the significant physical and mental health challenges already experienced by LGBTQ+ youth.”

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