Health Education at Dighton-Rehoboth Schools

Dighton-Rehoboth School Superintendent Bill Runey is encouraging parents and community members to share their opinions on new state guidelines for health education.

Last July, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released a 46 page draft of a new curriculum framework for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.

Runey explained that school districts have discretion to determine how standards are implemented at the local level.

Runey told the school committee his goal is to make the curriculum “more accessible” to families.

“I think it’s extremely important that we are as transparent as possible about our curriculum,” Runey said at the August 22 meeting. “It’s also important to note that state law does give parents the right to ‘opt-out’ their children for lessons related to sex education.”

DESE has outlined seven practices, including decision-making and problem solving, self-management and goal-setting, social awareness, relationship and communication skills, movement skills, and self-advocacy and health promotion.

DESE notes: The standards are presented by grade span: Pre–K-2, grades 3–5, grades 6–8, and grades 9–12. The standards are considered learning goals that are intended to be achieved by the end of each grade span, respectively. Within each grade span, the standards are grouped by practice. This reflects the importance of the practices for students across the disciplines of health education, physical education, and in developing social emotional competencies.

DESE’s CHPE report can be accessed at: https://www.doe.mass.edu/sfs/healthframework/