JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval and Clay County Schools will not offer AP Psychology this year.
Last week, College Board recommended Florida schools do not teach the course because of Florida's law that bans sexual orientation and gender identity from being discussed in the classroom.
In response, The Florida Department of Education sent a memo to district superintendents encouraging schools to teach AP Psychology as long as it is "age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our [FLDOE] course catalog."
"The entire situation comes with certain types of risk. There's risk to students if we teach the AP course according to state law that they would not be able to sit for the exam and so we didn't want to put students in that risky situation and then there's also risk to teachers if teachers teach that course according to state law then they could potentially have consequences emerging from a challenge from a parent or a parent group or anything like that," DCPS spokesperson, Tracy Pearce, said.
Pearce said DCPS will offer alternatives courses, including an AP seminar course and Cambridge AICE course among other options.
Clay County Schools will also offer the AICE program but did not say why it decided to not offer AP Psychology other than saying the district decisions, "will always be made in the best interest of our students.”
St Johns County says it will offer the course in its schools.
In a letter to high school leaders superintendent, Tim Forson, said the district will work with teachers to "ensure all standards are taught within the law."
A group of protestors met outside the St. Johns County School Board to speak out against Florida's African American Studies standards and raise questions to their local school board about AP Psychology standards.
"They won't say anything, so we don't know," St. Johns County neighbor Mimi Wahlmann, said.
"That's why we're showing them how we feel so hopefully they'll make the right decision in the meeting today," Wahlmann added.
Wahlmann and the group of seven or eight protestors want to ensure kids are taught AP Psychology as it's intended.
St. Johns County AP Psychology teacher, Justin Vogel, said he is happy the school district is offering the course.
But understands why other school districts wouldn't want to risk it.
“The term age appropriate is ambiguous and if a parent or group of parents claimed that I did something as a teacher that was not age appropriate even if I have the backing of my district even if I have the backing of the commissioner himself, I would still be dragged through a process that would not be fun," Vogel said.
Vogel said he'd like to see more clarity from the state.
We reached out to Nassau County Schools but did not hear back.
First Coast News reached out to the Florida Department of Education but has not heard back.