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.