This bill would once again allow for local school districts to develop health standards locally. In prior years, the required subject area of health was a standard to be developed at the local school district level. In 2024, the Minnesota legislature changed the statute that had made health standards to be developed at the local level to be developed at the state level.

A rulemaking group developed draft standards with a time period for public comment submission. Minnesota Family Council and True North Legal submitted written comments in July 2025, expressing our concerns about draft requirements and sharing how many of them are not developmentally appropriate. For example, one of the learning benchmarks of health education according to the draft statewide health standards is for students in third grade to "describe consent and its importance in all relationships." Another learning benchmark in the statewide health standards draft is to "define gender identity and expression" in third grade.

The outsized focus on focus on benchmarks for sexual health, with particular benchmarks at grade levels being developmentally inappropriate. For example, 70 benchmarks of learning in grade band 6-8 were allocated to Sexual Health while the next highest strand, Mental and Emotional Health, had 48 benchmarks of learning. Food and Nutrition had 13 benchmarks allocated for the Grade 6-8 band.