Contact Us Donate Site Guide
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts
Print
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts

Take Action

Petition to fix the national healthcare reform bill

Stand with Massachusetts abortion providers

» more action alerts

Choice Headlines

2/9/2010
Abortion protesters show up as Brookline clinic opens

2/5/2010
Pentagon to stock health facilities with morning-after pill

1/29/2010
Jury Reaches Guilty Verdict in Murder of Abortion Doctor

» more choice headlines

Health Education: Protecting Youth, Promoting Learning

Modified: 04/02/2009

In Massachusetts today, some public schools districts provide excellent health education, while others offer little to no teaching on this subject. Yet research shows that medically accurate, age-appropriate health education helps young people to stay healthy – which can only enhance their ability to learn (1).

When it comes to relationships and sex, these programs teach the benefits of abstinence while also providing vital information on contraception and prevention of pregnancy and disease. This is especially critical to improving educational achievement, given that teen pregnancy is the leading cause of drop out among young women (2). These curricula also cover such critical topics as nutrition, mental health, safety, substance abuse, and violence prevention.

In 1993, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the Commonwealth must provide an adequate education for those enrolled in the public schools. It further defined “adequacy” by requiring that students possess specific capabilities, including “sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness” (3). In response to this ruling, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE, formerly the Department of Education or DOE) created a science-based health education framework (4).

Yet, to this day, the laws governing educational standards in the Commonwealth still do not explicitly recognize health education as a core subject. As a result, there is no guarantee that the Department will continue to maintain academic standards on this subject to help local school districts meet students’ educational needs.
 
The Coalition for Choice is supporting An Act Relative to Providing Health Education in Schools (H.3434/S.218). Sponsored by Senator Harriette Chandler and Representative Alice Wolf, this bill would add age-appropriate, medically accurate health education – including sex education – to the core subjects for Massachusetts public schools. It would also ensure that the guidelines reflect the range of health issues facing young people today, while creating a system to identify the current gaps in health education across the Commonwealth. The bill also restates Massachusetts law requiring schools to have a parental notification policy and allow parents to exempt their children from any portion of the curriculum.
 
Notes
 
1. Freudenberg N, Ruglis J, Reframing school dropout as a public health issue, Prev Chronic Dis 2007; 4(4) http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2007/oct/07_0063.htm, accessed March 27, 2009.
 
2. McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Education, 415 Mass. 545, 618 (1993).
 
3. Ibid.
 
4. The current standards, last updated in 1999, 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. Available at http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/health/1999/1099.pdf.

Home | Get Involved | Political Program | Our Research | Issues | Events | News | About Us | Support Us
Pregnant? Need Help? | Contact Us | Get E-mail Alerts | Privacy Policy

©NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts

©NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts