‘Refrigerator curriculum’ in Maryland schools will help parents opt out of LGBT content for children

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has introduced a new way of both keeping parents informed about what their children are learning and giving them the chance to opt their kids out of lessons with LGBT material: the “refrigerator curriculum.”

Every nine weeks, each student will be given a refrigerator magnet providing an overview of upcoming lessons. Each magnet will include lists of topics to be covered and books to be read. The information will also be made available digitally. If a parent objects to any of the material, he or she can request, via a digital form, for their children to be exempted from the related lessons.

The refrigerator curriculum follows the Supreme Court decided in April that the school district had to allow parents to opt their children out of LGBT content in elementary school classes, as CatholicVote previously reported.

Until 2023, MCPS allowed parents to opt their children out of LGBT material, but in March of that year the school board decided to eliminate this option. MCPS has had elementary students read books such as Pride Puppy! and Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope, according to MyMCM. Parents objected, leading to a series of court cases, ultimately leading the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Chalkbeat reported that the parents of a second grader in one of the district’s schools said that their son loves and trusts his teachers.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor explained that the new refrigerator curriculum system “is a significant administrative burden, and sometimes we do teach things that run counter to someone’s ideas, and that’s part of the educational process,” according to MyMCM.

Taylor expressed hope that the refrigerator system would encourage parents and children to communicate more about what the children are learning in school.

“This is something that could have been constructed as a negative,” he said, according to MyMCM. “We are definitely focusing on [it] as a positive and a better way to communicate with our parents.”

“Having them teach principles about sexuality or gender identity that conflict with our religious beliefs significantly interferes with our ability to form his religious faith,” they said.

Montgomery County is the most religiously diverse county in the nation, according to Religion News Service.

A February 2024 Pew Research Center study indicated that more than half of Americans believe that parents should be allowed to opt their children out of LGBT content in school, according to a study by Pew Research Center.

>> Federal appeals court rules that Maryland parents can’t opt children out of reading LGBT books <<

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