A major step in the struggle for children's rights was made in September 2020 when relationships and sex education (RSE) and relationships education became required in all English primary and secondary schools. While the statutory guidance supporting the new RSE regime will help to ensure that many English schools offer students a far more comprehensive RSE curriculum than ever before, it also contains a number of caveats that mean that while the subject is required, not all students will receive the same content. The most pernicious of these "carve-outs" arguably permits faith schools to teach RSE in accordance with their "distinctive religious character," in addition to the freedom to withdraw, which is often invoked on the basis of religious convictions. This exception has been used to justify excluding certain issues (such same-sex couples or trans rights) from classroom discussion entirely, as well as to explain the use of religious RSE tools that opponents claim are sexist, homophobic, and often rely heavily on pseudoscience. Using recent curriculum revisions in Wales and normative case studies with empirical support, I argue that faith-based exceptions to RSE policy jeopardize children's access to a unique set of educational benefits. Based on a new paradigm created by Brighouse et al. for educational decision-making based on these goods, I continue to argue that programs of this kind are ethically and politically indefensible (assuming that the relevant bundle of goods is deemed desirable). I further maintain that there are no necessary grounds for governments to legislate for the subject to be circumscribed by the religious beliefs of parents or the faith ethos of the schools children attend. This is true even when looking at it through the lens of human rights law, which is frequently cited as a practical justification to allow more permissive policies with respect to teaching topics that may impinge upon parents' deeply held convictions.

children’s rights, educational goods, parents’ rights, relationships and sex education, religion