TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida has “effectively” banned AP Psychology from being taught in schools, according to a statement from the College Board.

The Florida Department of Education instructed superintendents that “teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” according to the statement.

The Advanced Placement course (AP) “asks students to ‘describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.’ This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago,” the statement reads.

The College Board said it can’t change the course because of regulations that “would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness,” the College Board said in a statement.

The College Board said any course that censors content can’t be labeled “AP” or “Advanced Placement” and can’t be utilized on student transcripts.

“We have heard from teachers across Florida who are heartbroken that they are being forced to drop AP and instead teach alternatives that have been deemed legal because the courses exclude these topics,” the statement reads.

The American Psychological Association also said any course excluding the topics violates their guidelines and can’t be used for college credit, according to the statement.

“The state’s ban of this content removes choice from parents and students,” the College Board said in the statement. “Coming just days from the start of school, it derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state.”

The College Board said AP courses are recognized by thousands of colleges and universities for admissions, scholarships, college credit and advanced standing.

“The DeSantis regime is at war with students and parents, censoring more AP curriculum and denying students the opportunity to earn college credit,” Equality Florida, which bills itself as the largest civil rights organization for the LGBTQ community, said in a statement. “The administration has already stated that the AP African American Studies course ‘lacks significant educational value,’ instead preferring to falsely applaud slavery as an American jobs program. Now, the DeSantis Administration wants to rewrite AP Psychology curriculum to enforce their image of America, too. Governor DeSantis will undermine any student’s education, revoke any parent’s rights, and demolish any curriculum to remake Florida’s schools into right wing propaganda machines in service to his political ambitions. His administration continues to use families and classrooms as pawns and do catastrophic damage to this state and its reputation.”

In the 2022-23 school year, more than 28,000 students in Florida took AP Psychology, according to the College Board.

The Florida Department of Education has also come under fire recently due to new rules regarding the teaching of Black history, which include instruction on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”