The state Board of Education is considering expanding its long-standing abstinence-based sex education policy to include lessons on contraceptives, disease prevention and various skills to help students “make healthy decisions about sexuality and relationships,” while still emphasizing abstinence.

The revised policy would mandate that public school students receive sexual health education that is age-appropriate and medically accurate, but leave it up to the Department of Education to vet curricula.

Currently, schools can select one of seven approved sex education curricula to be taught in intermediate and high schools under the existing board policy, which was last updated in 1995.

That policy, which is only two sentences long, says sex ed programs “shall” support abstention, help students who have had sex to abstain from engaging in sex until an appropriate time, and provide students with information on the use of protective devices to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

 The revised policy would require schools to provide sexual health education that:

 >> Includes education on abstinence, contraception and methods of disease prevention to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

>> Helps students develop relationships and communication skills to form healthy relationships.

>> Helps students develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and stress management to make healthy decisions about sexuality and relationships.

>> Encourages students to communicate with their parents, guardians and other trusted adults about sexuality.

>> Informs students of available community resources.

 It would also add a provision for parents to have their children opt out of instruction.

Last summer the Department of Education changed its policies to make sex ed optional and require parents to opt their children in to participate amid complaints about the controversial Pono Choices, a pilot sex-education curriculum for middle-schoolers which many parents found too graphic.

The more detailed sex education policy has angered some parents who argue that the changes will expose their children to unwanted and inappropriate lessons.

The board heard nearly two hours of public testimony at its monthly meeting Tuesday, and is expected to vote on the sex education policy next month.

Thirty individuals, many identifying themselves as parents and church members, testified against the policy change. Some accused the DOE and BOE of trying to “sexualize” students at a young age and “normalize” homosexuality by teaching about anal and oral sex.

“I support sex education in the context of a biological study of male-female reproduction in the context of a health course that is medically accurate and relates all the risks associated with that behavior and stresses to young people: delay, delay, delay,” testified state Rep. Bob McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), who has been an outspoken critic of Pono Choices.

Several proponents, meanwhile, welcomed the changes, calling the board’s existing policy ignorant and outdated.

“We need to recognize that Hawaii — because we are not consistently providing sexual health information in our schools and unfortunately in our homes” — has some of the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the nation, Judith Clark, executive director of the Hawaii Youth Services Network, testified.

Thirty-six percent of Hawaii students in middle and high school say they’re having sex, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s lower than the national rate of 47 percent that year.

The survey, which is conducted every two years, found most Hawaii teens are engaging in unprotected sex.