Members of the D.C. State Board of Education today are expected to pass new standards guiding students’ lessons about health and sexuality, a step that proponents argue is long overdue and has the potential to correct historical deficiencies in the critical subjects of HIV and AIDS.
The health standards, which apply to elementary, middle and high school students, have drawn some criticism in recent weeks. Ultra Teen Choice, a nonprofit that teaches students to refrain from sex, circulated a petition against the guidelines over what the organization says is a lack of abstinence education.
But new guidelines may help address sex education concerns raised HIV and AIDS education advocates.
The D.C. Appleseed Center released its annual report card on HIV and AIDS on Wednesday, giving the District a grade of D when it comes to the level of education the city’s school system is providing.
A major source of the problem, according to the report, has been D.C.’s inability to approve standards.
Metro TeenAIDS Executive Director Adam Tenner told The Examiner his group places great stock in the passage of the new guidelines. Yet, it’s just the start, he said. Now the chancellor’s office and individual schools must come up with tangible ways of delivering the information, Tenner said.
“What standards provide us is a clarity around who learns what at what grade so that we can hold the schools and the city accountable and, more importantly, so we can save young peoples’ lives,” Tenner told The Examiner. “Too many children live in poverty and don’t see why they should protect themselves.”
In addition to the health education standards, the board will vote on whether to adopt new world language and new physical education standards. Both sets of guidelines are expected to pass with ease.
According to John Stokes, spokesman for the State Education Office, the standards could be implemented by the fall at the earliest.
