School board updated on health class instruction materials
The Lee County School Board was recently briefed on some new awareness added to the 2024-25 school year comprehensive health instructional materials, which will be voted on next month.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Nathan Shaker said those include awareness of the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy for grades 6-12 and teen dating violence for those in grades 7-12.
Other additional new items include an update on certain health and physical education courses to include revised state academic standards for health education, which were approved in July of 2023. He said the updated courses will include topics such as the effects of social media and resiliency education.
“These courses become effective for the 2024-2025 school year,” Shaker said.
In regard to health instructional materials, there has been a delay in adoption until the 2025-26 year.
Curriculum & Instruction Director Lori Houchin said the material used for kindergarten through fifth grade will include Safer, Smarter Kids — Scope and Sequence and a Safety Rules Video for kindergarten lesson one.
“We have our district-created materials for substance abuse and use,” she said.
Parent opt out forms were also discussed, which will be sent through school messenger.
“At the beginning of every school year we send a notice to parents, in addition the opt out forms, letting them know about the required health education,” Houchin said.
The middle school health instructional materials include Glencoe Teen Health, 2014 edition, and Glencoe Florida Health, 2014 edition for high school.
“Middle school, we are making a change. In the past, I would say seven years, the district required that all sixth-graders take health. With the changes of standards, we were missing the teen dating violence,” she said.
Houchin said there are now a variety of ways to cover health. Those options include a semester of health for sixth grade, seventh grade or eighth grade; peer counseling for the entire year; embedded into a semester of a PE course; or embedded in a science course.
High school remains the same with one credit of physical education to include the integration of health. There are waiver options — two years of JV or varsity sport, two years of JROTC, one semester of marching band or dance, or International Baccalaureate or Cambridge Advanced International Certificate Program.
Parents are also offered an opt out form for reproductive health and any disease.
“We follow our scope and sequence and send out again two weeks prior to hitting those standards,” she said.
Students who have parents that opt out are not penalized, as they will receive an alternative assignment.
“There are plenty of other standards — plethora of other standards to where they can receive grades and a full credit,” Houchin said.
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