BALTIMORE (WBFF) — The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is proposing an updated health framework that would delay lessons on gender identities from kindergarten to fifth grade, following months of pushback from concerned parents.

The move marks a significant shift in Maryland’s approach to health education after years of emphasizing the need to promote different gender identities at all grade levels. The proposed rollback reflects mounting political and parental pressure on schools to narrow classroom discussions of gender identity – a debate now stretching from local school boards to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Trump administration.

The Maryland Comprehensive Health Education Framework instructs public schools on what to include in local curricula. The current framework instructs kindergartners to “recognize a range of ways people identify and express their gender” and first graders to “identify a range of ways people identify and express their gender.”

Under the newly proposed framework, MSDE removes the “gender identity and expression” lessons from early elementary grades. Instead, a similar lesson is pushed to fifth grade, where students would “demonstrate ways to treat people of all gender identities and expressions with dignity and respect.”

The Maryland State Board of Education voted Tuesday to publish the updated framework, which will then be reviewed by the Maryland joint committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review. If approved, the framework will undergo a 30-day public comment period before potential revisions and implementation.

Raven Hill, a spokeswoman for MSDE, said the changes on gender identity content in schools reflect an updated understanding about student maturity levels.

“After consulting with subject-matter experts and the Health Education SFVC, we identified 5th grade as the appropriate developmental stage to introduce the personal characteristics of gender identity and expression,” Hill told Spotlight on Maryland. “We also removed the term gender expression from kindergarten, because at that age, the focus should remain on kindness and bullying prevention, not identity labels.”

Caitlin Edmondson, who has two children in the Carroll County Public School system, praised the decision from MSDE but said more work must be done.

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“I feel like parents’ voices are being heard,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “I'm very happy to see this. We need to focus on real education. We need to focus on math, science, social studies and ELA.”

Rosalind Hanson, who has a child in the Montgomery County Public School system and works as the director of development for Moms for Liberty, said the new MSDE framework is “fantastic news.”

“I'm grinning from ear to ear,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “This is a commonsense approach to helping to eliminate the idea that you can be anything other than the sex that you were born.”

The joint committee has the authority to pause a review on proposed changes from MSDE and hold a hearing. Sen. Mary Washington (District 43) and Del. Samuel Rosenberg (District 41), who head the committee in each chamber, did not respond to a request for comment on whether they plan to get involved in the updated health framework.

The Maryland health framework instructions on different gender identities in early elementary school are replaced in the new proposal by a section titled “dignity and respect,” where kindergarteners learn to “identify what it looks like to treat others with kindness” and first graders to “recognize ways to treat all people regardless of gender with dignity and respect.”

The proposed health framework keeps lessons on different gender identities in middle and high school.

Sixth graders learn to “define sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and gender expression, and how these are components of a person’s overall identity.”

Seventh graders “compare sex assigned at birth and gender identity, and explain how they may or may not differ” and “explain that gender identity and gender expression are personal and may differ from societal or cultural norms.”

Eight graders “explain sex assigned at birth and gender identity, and explain how they may or may not differ.”

High schoolers under the proposed framework “acknowledge that gender identity and gender expression exist on a continuum, may change over time, and how they relate to a person’s sense of self and relationships.”

Edmondson said she hopes to see MSDE continue to reform its health framework so that gender identity lessons are completely removed.

“I wouldn't stop here just because it's out of the elementary schools now,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “You can teach dignity and respect for everyone without singling out a specific group of people. I feel like it's one of those things that if you tell kids about it, there’s a more likely chance for them to think about it when maybe they never would've thought about it.”

Maryland parents can opt out their children from the Family Life and Human Sexuality portion of the health framework, which includes the lessons on different gender identities.

The federal government has rebuked Maryland public schools over several of its policies and programs this year that mention different gender identities.

The Trump administration notified Maryland officials in September that they need to remove mentions of different gender identities from their version of the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program or risk losing funding. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown joined more than a dozen Democratic State Attorneys General in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the defunding threats.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in June in favor of Montgomery County parents who sued their public school district after being told they were unable to opt-out their children from a language arts lesson plan that included a series of LGBT books. One book starting in kindergarten, “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,” details how a young girl decides to identify as a boy.

The U.S. Department of Education told Spotlight on Maryland in September that Maryland may be at risk of losing Title IX funding if it does not alter policies that allow students to access restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams based on their preferred gender identity. Maryland State Superintendent Carey Wright told Spotlight on Maryland in response that she has no plans to change the policies.

Additionally, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Spotlight on Maryland in July that Maryland may be at risk of losing funding for its Teen Pregnancy Prevention program if officials do not remove an inclusion of “gender ideology.”

Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by FOX45 News, The Baltimore Sun and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email [email protected]. Contact Patrick Hauf at [email protected] and @PatrickHauf on X.