Latest news with #PREP
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
HHS agency threatens funding for California sex ed program over ‘gender ideology'
The Trump administration's bigoted, anti-scientific worldview is driving new threats to federal funding in California. On Friday, the Administration for Children and Families, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, sent a letter to the state threatening to pull its funding for a sex ed program unless the state removes references to what the administration calls 'egregious' content related to 'gender ideology.' The letter, signed by the organization's head, Andrew Gradison, accuses California's Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) of 'teaching young students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex and that boys can identify as girls,' and gives the state a 60-day deadline to remove 'all gender ideology references' from its curricula. The agency said it's making this threat in the name of providing youth with 'medically accurate, fact-based education,' which is particularly Orwellian given that virtually every reputable medical association in the United States acknowledges that transgender people exist and that gender identity isn't fixed to biological sex. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Hill the PREP program isn't the state's official K-12 sex ed curriculum and defended the program's merits. 'To be clear: this is NOT California's K-12 sex education curriculum,' the spokesperson said in a statement. 'The California Personal Responsibility Education Program (CA PREP), which receives barely $6 million in federal funding, provides comprehensive sexual health education to adolescents via an effective, evidence-based program model.' The letter comes amid a barrage of other right-wing attacks on trans children. The Supreme Court ruled last week that Tennessee can lawfully ban parents from seeking gender-affirming care for their kids, and the Trump administration announced it was removing specialized support service for trans and other LGBTQ people in crisis from a national suicide hotline. The attempt to censor California's PREP program seems like yet another anti-scientific effort by Trump and company to harass and ostracize trans people from public life. This article was originally published on
San Francisco Chronicle
21-06-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration orders California to remove ‘disturbing gender ideology' from sex ed program
The Trump administration has given California 60 days to strip all references to gender identity from a federally funded sex education program or risk losing its funding. In a letter sent Friday to the California Department of Public Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families called the state's Personal Responsibility Education Program 'noncompliant' with federal law. The agency cited 'disturbing gender ideology content,' including passages explaining that gender identity can differ from biological sex and that some individuals identify as transgender or nonbinary. 'The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,' said Andrew Gradison, ACF's acting secretary, in a statement. 'The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose.' PREP, which receives approximately $6 million in federal support, is designed to educate youth on contraception, abstinence and preventing sexually transmitted infections. California officials said the program targets vulnerable populations, such as youth in homeless shelters and juvenile justice facilities. Among the flagged content were educational materials describing gender identity as a 'deep-seated, internal sense' and including terms such as 'cisgender,' 'transgender' and 'genderqueer.' The agency stated that such material exceeds the scope of PREP's authorizing statute. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Hill that the state was first made aware of the directive through Fox News. 'To be clear: this is NOT California's K-12 sex education curriculum,' the spokesperson noted, calling it an 'effective, evidence-based program model.' The latest announcement comes just days after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's law banning gender-affirming medical care — such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy — for transgender minors.
The Hill
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
California given deadline to overhaul sex education program
The Trump administration gave California a 60-day deadline to overhaul its sex education program or risk losing federal funding. California must eliminate 'all gender ideology references' in its program and curriculum, the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services said in a letter to the state. The administration condemned the federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) for teaching gender identity is different from a child's biological sex. 'The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,' said Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. 'The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools.' The Hill has reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) office for comment. The department said it is also investigating other grant recipients that administer PREP to ensure similar concepts are not taught in other areas of the country. The announcement comes days after the Supreme Court ruled Tennessee's ban on medical care for transgender kids is legal. It also comes after the Department of Education has opened investigations into numerous school districts who have allowed transgender individuals to play on girls' sports teams.
Fox News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
HHS gives California deadline to overhaul federally-funded sex ed program 'indoctrinating' kids
The Trump administration is giving California's federally funded sex education program 60 days to remove all references to gender identity or face potential termination of its funding. California's Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration since at least March, when the HHS's Administration for Children and Families (ACF) requested the federally funded state-operated program send copies of its curriculum and other relevant course materials to them for review. According to ACF, the probe was initiated to ensure the state's sexual education programming is medically accurate and age-appropriate. The agency said in a Friday notice sent to California's PREP program, reviewed by Fox News Digital, that following its examination of the program's curriculum and other teaching materials, it found a litany of subjects and language within the course materials deemed to fall outside the program's "authorizing statute," in particular references to "gender ideology." As a result, ACF said it halted their review for "medical accuracy," since the content it found is not statutorily allowed in the first place. "The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children," said ACF's acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. "The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools." Among the materials ACF found, which it now wants to be removed, was a lesson for middle school-aged students that seeks to introduce them to the concepts of transgenderism. "We've been talking during class about messages people get on how they should act as boys and girls—but as many of you know, there are also people who don't identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer," the lesson states to students. "This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently." ACF flagged parts of the curriculum for high school-aged students as well, which gets into topics like differentiating between "social transitioning" and "medical transitioning." The high school-aged materials also include instruction on what it means to be "non-binary" and language that tells students "gender-identity" is "essentially a social status." Teacher training materials part of the California PREP program were among other aspects of the California sex-ed curriculum that were flagged by ACF. "All people have a gender identity," the teacher training materials state. They also instruct educators to refer to people who follow the biological marker they are "assigned at birth" as "cisgender" and adds that those who are not "cisgender" may identify as "non-binary, agender, bigender, genderfluid, [or] genderqueer." In ACF's notice, the agency pointed out that under the authorizing statute that established California's PREP program, it is defined as a program designed to educate young people mainly on abstinence, contraception and avoiding sexually transmitted infections, like HIV/AIDS. "The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa," ACF's notice to California PREP states. "We are aware that this curricula and other program materials were previously approved by ACF," the notice continues. "However, the prior administration erred in allowing PREP grants to be used to teach students gender ideology because that approval exceeded the agency's authority to administer the program consistent with the authorizing legislation as enacted by Congress." California now has 60 days to remove all gender ideology references from its PREP curricula and other program materials, and then it must resend its materials for approval by ACF. If California fails to make the necessary changes requested by the Trump administration, the agency says it has the authority to withhold, disallow, suspend or terminate the federal grant currently funding California's PREP program.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MaineGeneral Health cutting mental health, disabilities services for children
May 5—MaineGeneral Health confirmed Monday that it is cutting pediatric psychological services in central Maine — a move advocates say will make it more difficult to access care for children with mental health challenges, autism, attention deficit, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nathan Howell, president and CEO of MaineGeneral Health, the parent organization of MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, said in a written statement on Monday that "PREP and psychological services" at the Edmund Ervin Pediatric Center are closing as of May 16. The Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program, or PREP, provides services to children recently placed in the foster care system, while psychological services are for a broader pediatric patient mix. Howell said the reasons for the cutbacks are financial, as "health care across Maine and the nation is in a crisis." The cuts are because state "reimbursements do not cover the cost of care, excessive insurance denials and increased costs of doing business." The Ervin center is currently operating at a $1 million annual loss, MaineGeneral said. Nancy Cronin, executive director of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council, a quasi-governmental agency funded by federal and state dollars, said the Ervin center shuttering some of its services will make it difficult for some parents — especially those with MaineCare — to obtain a diagnosis for their child. Without a diagnosis, pediatric patients would not qualify for needed services, Cronin said. "We've lost a huge piece of the puzzle," Cronin said. "It's like a bridge has been blown up." Cronin said over time, beginning in the LePage administration, the state reduced financial support under MaineCare for diagnostic services for children with mental, intellectual and developmental disabilities. Cronin said the cuts have never been restored since Janet Mills became governor in 2019, leading to an erosion in these services. While the MaineGeneral cuts will directly affect families who live in central Maine, Cronin said it follows the loss of services in other parts of the state and that access will become a more acute problem. Cronin is hoping to rally support to provide more robust funding for diagnostic services and for PREP, either by the Mills administration tapping into the state's rainy day fund or through legislation. "What we are doing is creating enormous barriers to get children what they need," Cronin said. "This is going to be a nightmare." Cronin said she does not blame MaineGeneral for the cutbacks, but rather considers it a failure by the state to sufficiently fund the programs. Lindsay Hammes, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, said in a written statement that the agency "is disappointed to learn of MaineGeneral's decision." "It is a business decision made independently by the hospital," Hammes said. "We are reviewing options to support impacted families within existing services." Howell said in his statement that "while we recognize the impact of these changes, we will continue to offer 95% of our current services through our robust pediatric and outpatient rehabilitation service lines." Those services include speech therapy, physical therapy, counseling and medication management. The Edmund Ervin center name will be retired, with the remaining services falling under the MaineGeneral umbrella. The cutbacks come in the wake of a September 2024 lawsuit against the Mills administration by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide adequate behavioral health services to children in the Medicaid program, which is called MaineCare in the state. That lawsuit was settled in November, with the state agreeing to boost services. Copy the Story Link
