January 2022

Why Health Education Matters

Comprehensive Health Education in Grades K-12

Skills for Health, Resilience, & Total Well-Being

Promote Health-Enhancing Attitudes and

Strengthen Executive Function Skills

Healthy Students are Better Learners!

Health Education is relevant to students’ lives and supports students’ health, resilience, total well-being, and academic success so they may reach their aspirations, from early learning through college, career, and citizenship.

Providing students with high-quality, comprehensive Health Education equips them with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to support their strengths and interests as well as address their current and future health needs and challenges. Health literacy is essential to students’ social, emotional, mental, physical, and academic development.

Health-literate individuals are able to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.¹ This contributes to one’s health, resilience, well-being, healthy relationships, and a positive quality of life as well as prevents and reduces the risk of disease, injury, and death. In addition, health-literate individuals are also able to advocate for the health of others.

HIDOE Health Education/Hoʻonaʻauao Olakino

E Ola Pono. E Mālama I Nā Piko.

Live Pono. Nurture Thriving Connections.

Learn more at bit.ly/LearningDesignHealth

Today’s Health Education

Health Education reflects the growing body of research that emphasizes:

• Supporting the health, resilience, and total well-being of the whole child

(i.e., students’ social, emotional, mental, physical, and cognitive development)

• Cultivating health literacy skills aligned to National Health Education Standards.
• Building functional knowledge with relevant and functional information aligned

to Priority Health Topics.

• Strengthening students’ connections with their identities, families, and communities.
• Addressing students’ strengths, interests, challenges, and needs through interactive and social learning experiences.
• Nurturing attitudes, values, and beliefs that support health-promoting behaviors through safe, inclusive, and caring messages and learning environments.

Less effective Health Education often overemphasizes teaching scientific facts and increasing student knowledge.⁴

Course Requirements

Elementary School: Health Education is required in all elementary grades.

Middle/Intermediate School: Middle/intermediate schools must offer courses that allow all students to meet Hawaiʻi’s Health Education standards and performance indicators for Grades 6-8. One semester (0.5 credits; 60 hours) of Health Education in each middle/intermediate school grade is strongly recommended but not required.

High School: In high school, a one-semester course (0.5 credits; 60 hours) in Health Education is required for graduation.

For additional information about middle school promotion and high school graduation requirements, refer to Hawaiʻi State Board of Education (BOE) Policies 102-9, 102-15, and 105-1.⁵

Policies and Guidelines

Instructional Content: Health Education curriculum, instruction, and assessments are aligned with Health Education standards. The BOE adopted the National Health Education Standards (NHES). A three-year implementation rollout for NHES began in School Year (SY) 2020-2021, with full implementation of the NHES in SY 2023-2024. Health Education in Pre-kindergarten is aligned to the Hawaiʻi Early Learning and Development Standards.

Instructional Minutes: Health Education is provided to students in elementary grades at least 45 minutes per week and secondary grades at least 200 minutes per week.

Nutrition Education: Nutrition education includes culturally relevant activities that are ‘āina-based and hands-on, such as food preparation, taste-testing, farm visits, and school gardens.

Sexual Health Education: Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) schools provide age-appropriate and medically accurate sexual health education to promote healthy decisions and behaviors during puberty and adolescence as well as prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Students are encouraged to communicate with their parents, guardians, and trusted adults. Parents and legal guardians may opt-out of having their children participate in sexual health education.

For the full text of the policies and guidelines, refer to BOE Policies 102-3, 103-1, 103-5, 103-8, and HIDOE Wellness Guidelines.^5,6 For additional information, go to bit.ly/LearningDesignHealth.

References

1. US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). Healthy people 2030. https://health.gov/healthypeople
2. Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards. (2007). National health education standards: Achieving excellence (2nd ed.). The American Cancer Society.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2021). Health education curriculum analysis tool, 2021. Author.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2019). Characteristics of effective health education curricula. https://cdc.gov/healthyschools/sher/characteristics
5. Hawaiʻi State Board of Education [BOE]. (n.d.). Board policies. https://boe.hawaii.gov/policies/Pages/Board-Policies.aspx
6. Hawaiʻi State Department of Education [HIDOE]. (n.d.). Wellness guidelines. https://awaiipublicschools.org/TeachingAndLearning/HealthAndNutrition/WellnessGuidelines