Frequently Asked Questions

• What does the Health Education Bill do?

  • This bill increases access to health education for students in Massachusetts public schools.
  • School districts would teach age-appropriate, medically accurate health education in grades K-12.
  • The bill's definition of "Health Education" is based on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Education Curriculum Frameworks that were developed by the Department of Education under the Education Reform Act of 1993.

• What topics are covered by the health education framework?

  • The standards provide instruction in the areas of: growth and physical development, physical activity and fitness, violence prevention, nutrition, reproduction/sexuality, mental health, family life, interpersonal relationships, disease prevention and control, safety and injury prevention, tobacco, alcohol, and other substance use/abuse prevention, consumer health and resource management, ecological health, and community and public health.

• Will this bill eliminate the ability of parents to opt their children out of sex education?

  • No, parents will still have the ability to opt their children out of sex education classes.
  • The Health Education Bill specifically states that the opt-out provision applies to any portion of the health education curriculum primarily involving human sexual education or human sexuality issues.

• Why is this bill necessary?

  • Increasing access to health education will allow students the opportunity to learn about such important topics as nutrition, physical activity, mental health, safety and injury prevention, reproduction and sexuality, substance abuse, and violence prevention.
  • Massachusetts does not require or fund comprehensive health education, resulting in major inconsistencies across the state. Currently, there are disparities from town to town-and even from school to school-in the health education that students receive in public schools.
  • According to the 2007 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey , young people in the Commonwealth are very much in need of health education. Among Massachusetts high school students:
    • 46% of high school students and 23% of 8th graders had tried smoking cigarettes at least once.
    • 28% engaged in at least one episode of binge drinking in the month prior to the survey.
    • 11% of high school students and 6% of middle school students were physically hurt by a date.
    •  17% of high school students and 16% of middle school students had intentionally injured themselves in the past year; 13% of high school students had seriously considered suicide.
    • Among sexually active students, only 61% used a condom the last time they had sex.
    • 64% of high school seniors have had sexual intercourse in their lifetime.
    • 28% of high school students were in a physical fight in the 12 months before the survey.
    • 26% of high school students and 29% of middle school students are overweight or at risk for being overweight.

• At what grade level would health education begin under the framework?

  • The framework covers all grade levels, K-12.
  • Different components of the health education curriculum framework would be phased in at different grade levels, on an age-appropriate basis.
  • The Health Education Bill specifically states that the curriculum must be age appropriate.

• How will communities afford this new mandate?

  • The cost impact will vary from school district to school district. For school districts that currently teach health education the cost will be minimal. For school districts that do not, the costs will be more significant.
  • Massachusetts used to provide grant funding for communities to expand the quality and availability of health education in the public schools. Funding for these programs was eliminated during the recent recession.
  • Restoration of funding for these programs would help communities cover the cost of providing comprehensive health education.
  • This legislation will save taxpayer dollars by preventing costly societal challenges such as unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, school violence, substance abuse, and tobacco use. The savings will far exceed the cost of the investment it would take to fund this bill.

• How will school districts fit this into the school day?

  • Health education was always intended to be part of the curriculum for public schools under the Education Reform Act of 1993.
  • Health education is already incorporated into the Department of Education's Time and Learning standards.
  • The State Supreme Judicial Court, in their McDuffy decision, included health education as one of the components of an adequate public education.
  • Many components of the health education curriculum framework can be integrated into the curriculum of other subjects, such as science and social studies.
  • Health education is vitally important for young people; unfortunately, it currently gets short shrift due to its exclusion from the core curriculum.

• Will this mean that there will be an MCAS for health education?

  • No, the bill does not require an MCAS component for health education.