Note on the proposed new state health standards

Yesterday's Massachusetts education coverage was all about Governor Healey's announcement of proposed new health and physical education state frameworks, what we also refer to as state standards. You can find on them on next Tuesday's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agenda. 

Because the passage of new curriculum frameworks isn't generally the kind of thing that most people pay attention to, a few notes on process:

• In Massachusetts, under MGL Ch. 69, sec. 1E, it is the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that sets frameworks for K-12 education in Massachusetts by curricula area. You can find them here. 
  
  
• Infamously, the health standards have not been reviewed and updated since 1999. The Department started a process of redrafting the health frameworks back in 2018, in a process that seemed to be taking an unusually long time (so no, you can't really blame the pandemic for this one).
  
  
• Note--and this is important!--this is not the creation or the adoption of a curriculum. This is "what a child is expected to learn" as a result, not how the child gets there.
  
  
• There have been ongoing attempts to pass the Healthy Youth Act by the state Legislature; the act would require that curricula in Massachusetts schools be medically accurate, age appropriate, LGBTQ+ inclusive, include tools to build healthy relationships, and teach the benefits of delaying sex as well as how to prevent STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and pregnancy. It has passed the Senate four times; it never makes it to the House floor (the standing assumption is that House leadership knows some members don't want to be put on the spot about it).
  
  
• This process, instead, leaves this under Board purview (where I, anyway, would argue it better belongs; you don't really want the Legislature sorting out what should be taught, do you?).
  
  
• On Tuesday, the Board (and the rest of us; the meeting will be livestreamed) will receive a report on the proposed update of standards.
  
  
• Their vote on Tuesday is on sending it out for public comment for 60 days. All proposed regulation and framework standards go through such a process.
  IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS HAPPEN, THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN: There will be a dedicated email address, usually as well as an online form, allowing comments to be submitted. I'll be sure and link once that exists.
  
  
• The Department takes those comments, makes any revisions that they think are necessary in response to those comments, and brings that back to the Board for approval at a later meeting. The timeline outlined by the Commissioner says he expects them to come back later this summer (which is really cruising) or this fall.

Again, if this is important to you, yesterday's announcement is not the end, though it might be the beginning of the end. Prepare to comment on the revisions starting sometime next week.