Comprehensive Health Education

California is working to ensure that every classroom is a safe learning environment and every student has access to the information they need to grow into a healthy adult. Health-related initiatives include enactment of the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) in 2016 and a revised Health Curriculum Framework.

The Health Education Framework is aligned to the 2008 California Health Education Content Standards, which support the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in eight overarching standards:

1. essential health concepts;
2. analyzing health influences;
3. accessing valid health information;
4. interpersonal communication;
5. decision making;
6. goal setting;
7. practicing health-enhancing behaviors; and
8. health promotion in six content areas of health education: nutrition and physical activity; growth, development, and sexual health; injury prevention and safety; alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; mental, emotional, and social health; and personal and community health.

The Health Education Framework provides guidance to educators, parents, and publishers, in supporting the implementation of the California Health Education content standards.

In 2016, the California Healthy Youth Act (AB-329) was passed by the State of California which requires school districts to provide students with integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased comprehensive sexual health and HIV prevention education at least once in middle school and once in high school.  This law continues to allow parents/guardians to remove theirstudent from all or part of sexual health and/or HIV prevention education.

Previously districts were required to provide only HIV prevention education once in middle school and once in high school. If a district elected to also provide sexual health education, they were required to do so in a way that was comprehensive, medically accurate, and age appropriate.  With this bill, providing Sexual Health Education is no longer optional. 

Instruction and materials must be medically accurate, objective, age‐appropriate and inclusive of all students, as defined by law. The law requires that instruction and materials must encourage students to communicate with parents, guardians or other trusted adults about human sexuality.  The purpose of this instruction is to:

• Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect their sexual and reproductive health from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and from unintended pregnancy.
• Provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to develop healthy attitudes concerning adolescent growth and development, body image, gender, sexual orientation, relationships, marriage, and family.
• Promote understanding of sexuality as a normal part of human development.
• Ensure students receive integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased sexual health and HIV prevention instruction and provide educators with clear tools and guidance to accomplish that end.
• Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to have healthy, positive, and safe relationships and behaviors.

CHYA also states that comprehensive sexual health education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention education may be taught earlier than Grade 7 however, all instruction and materials utilized must meet the instructional criteria or baseline requirements of the law. (EC §§ 51933, 51934(b)).

Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) evaluated, recommended, and Board adopted the following instructional materials as the District’s comprehensive sexual health education and HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum in April 2019. 

• Upper Elementary: Puberty Talk
• Middle School:  Positive Prevention Plus and Positive Prevention Plus - Special Populations
• High School:  Teen Talk High School and Teen Talk Adapted for All Abilities

In evaluating a number of CHYA curriculum options and recommending the above curricula, CUSD convened committees at both the secondary and elementary levels composed of the following  participants:

• Secondary Science and Special Education teachers
• At least one parent and one teacher from each elementary site
• Elementary and Secondary school administrators
• District administrators
• Community members
• Health Coordinator, Los Angeles County Office of Education