After controversy, Sarasota County Schools will keep AP Psychology, district says

Following the state's move to effectively ban AP Psychology, and a quick reversal of the stance, Sarasota County Schools said it will continue to offer the course to students as planned, a district spokesperson confirmed Monday.

Craig Maniglia, the district's director of communications and community relations, said curriculum teams at Sarasota Schools would work to ensure the course's content is age-appropriate and complies with state law, referring to a letter sent Friday from Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz.

Manatee County Schools did not immediately respond for comment about the status of the course there.

Last week, the state Department of Education essentially banned the Advanced Placement Psychology course by prohibiting instruction on gender and sexual orientation. The College Board, which runs the AP program and oversees SAT testing, said this exclusion would "effectively ban" the class because such an adjustment would mean it couldn't be called Advanced Placement or used to earn college credit.

The College Board said the topic has been in the curriculum for the past 30 years.

The state asserted that the curriculum was against Florida law and that the College Board was "playing games with Florida students" by not complying. In 2022, the Florida Legislature passed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. This year, the state expanded the bill to include up to 12th-grade classrooms.

After widespread coverage of the potential implications of such a ban on students about to start school this week, the education department on Friday clarified that it would allow school districts to teach the class in full, according to a letter sent to superintendents.

"In fact, the Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our course catalog," Diaz wrote in the letter to superintendents.

About 30,000 Florida students, including 350 in Sarasota County, are set to take AP Psychology this year, according to College Board.

Psychology courses in the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge AICE programs remain unchanged, the organizations told USA TODAY.

This report includes archive material from the Tallahassee Democrat.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: AP Psychology will be taught in Sarasota County schools, district says