A survey of parents of Roanoke public schoolchildren indicates there is support for sexuality education in the city's classrooms -- and most favor a broader range of topics than currently offered.

The nonprofit organization Planned Parenthood Health Systems commissioned the automated telephone survey of 363 parents and found 80 percent said sex education should be taught in city schools. The majority deemed middle school the appropriate age level for lessons on topics such as sexually transmitted diseases and birth control.

"Planned Parenthood believes that age-appropriate, medically accurate information regarding health and sexuality assists students in making responsible and informed decisions, protecting the public health, reducing student dropout rates and saving Virginia taxpayers millions of dollars in costs associated with teenage pregnancy and birth," said David Nova, the nonprofit's vice president.

Of the parents surveyed, 90 percent supported teaching "how to use birth control methods," 89 percent approved of instructions on "how to use condoms," 93 percent said teaching the "effectiveness and failure rates of birth control methods, including condoms" was an appropriate topic and 85 percent approved of lessons on "sexual orientation and what it means."

But detailed information on birth control is scant and sexual orientation is not found in the school division's Family Life Education curriculum, which is posted on the division's website.

State law, administered by the Virginia Department of Education, since the late 1980s has required localities to develop a Family Life Education curriculum while giving them leeway on what it includes, and providing for community involvement in its development. State law also requires the Family Life Education materials be made available for parental inspection on request. Also, parents have the right to opt their children out of the lessons.

"Every parent is required to sign a form," said Tiffany Woods, schools spokeswoman. "The expectation is that they receive that [form] every year."

Woods said instruction on the transmission and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, the basics of reproduction and abstinence until marriage "begins in fifth grade and expands age appropriately through high school."

But more than 40 percent of the 363 Roanoke parents surveyed said they were not sure whether sexuality education currently was being taught in the school system.

"We do teach health and PE [physical education], and parents are aware of that, but they may not be aware that Family Life Education is part of the health taught in grade six through grade 10," Woods said.

Nova said the polling results show there is no disconnect between parents' perceptions and youth behaviors, especially at the middle school level.

"Teens are increasingly engaging in sexual intercourse in middle school," he said.

Nova pointed to data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey that shows an increase of 11 percentage points since 2002 in the number of middle school students reporting having had sexual intercourse. According to the 2009 survey, more than 35 percent of city middle school students reported engaging in sexual intercourse.

Roanoke's teenage pregnancy rate in 2008 was the third-highest in Virginia, according to a state Department of Health report.

Nova said the school division and Planned Parenthood last week worked together to provide three hours of sexuality education training to 42 of the division's health educators.

The automated phone survey was conducted June 8-10 by Raleigh, N.C.,-based Public Policy Polling, and had a margin of error of 5.1 percent. The survey oversampled white parents (69 percent) and undersampled black parents (22 percent), relative to the school system's racial demographics. The city school system had 12,948 students in September, 47 percent of whom were black and 44 percent of whom were white, according to state education department statistics.