by Taylor Adams ‘27

This year MCPS has implemented a new curriculum as the result of a Supreme Court ruling about LGBTQ+ literature in schools. This “refrigerator curriculum” provides parents with the names and themes of the texts their children will be reading in school and allows them to opt their children out if the themes go against their religious beliefs.
In 2022, MCPS included several books with LGBTQ+ themes as supplementary readings in the elementary school curriculum. Parents complained, and the Board of Education allowed them to excuse their children from instruction with LGBTQ+-inclusive books. However, a year later they reversed this action. Three couples sued claiming this was infringing on their religious beliefs, and this June the Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor settled on the parents’ side in a 6-3 decision. The Supreme Court required that parents be given the option to withdraw their children from lessons with LGBTQ+ material for religious reasons.

Currently on the MCPS website, parents can access links to the curriculum for the first quarter of grades K-12. These are supposed to be one page describing the curriculum so parents can print it out and stick it on their refrigerator, hence the name. However, many of these links have several pages and other attached links.

MCPS also now provides a form online for parents wanting to excuse their children from instruction, where they must agree that the reason they’re withdrawing their kids is because it substantially interferes with their religious beliefs. Students will be given alternative material and assignments when available.

An issue arises from the county’s lack of knowledge on high school AP classes’ curriculums. While the pages include the curriculum for the basic grade level English class, AP English teachers get to decide their own books and texts for the students to read. In this case, parents have no warning of what texts their students will be reading in particular at each high school.