Massachusetts students will receive sex and health education that is intended to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community and teach about bodily autonomy, mental and emotional health, dating safety, nutrition, sexually transmitted infections and consent after a board of education vote Tuesday.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education unanimously voted during its Tuesday meeting to adopt a new set of curriculum frameworks on health education -- the first time the guidelines have been updated since 1999.
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The new standards include different guidelines for four age groups: pre-K through second grade, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12.
For the youngest students, the standards have to do with learning about healthy eating; managing stress and demonstrating self-control; practicing hygienic habits such as washing hands; learning how to respond in emergency situations; discussing gender-role stereotypes and treating all people with respect; defining bullying; explaining why taking medicine as directed is important, among other goals.
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As children get older, the guidelines include education about sex, healthy romantic relationships, gender identity, substance use and misuse, how to identify and stay safe from human and sex trafficking, and more specific, science-based methods for physical education.
The board's vote comes after a summer-long public comment period, during which the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received nearly 5,400 comments via email, mail and online survey responses.
Her proposal covered much of the same ground and language as previously proposed legislation aimed at updating schools' approaches to sex education, a bill that died several sessions in a row in the Massachusetts House.
In the past decade, the Senate has passed the "Healthy Youth Act" four times to remodel sex education, to teach students about human anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, effective use of contraceptives, dating violence and gender and sexual identity. But it repeatedly died in the House.
