About the Health Education Bill

• The Health Education Bill
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Overview of Health Education Frameworks

Current Status of the Health Education Bill

The Health Education Bill will be reintroduced with some changes in the next legislative session.

Goal of the Health Education Bill

An Act Providing Health Education in Schools would make health education, as defined by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Frameworks and as required by the Supreme Judicial Court, accessible to all students in Massachusetts public schools. School districts would teach age-appropriate health education in grades K-12.

The Background on Health Education in Massachusetts

Massachusetts does not require or fund comprehensive health education, resulting in major inconsistencies across the state. Some school districts have excellent health education programs where other school districts have little or no health education as part of their curriculum.

In 1993, the Supreme Judicial Court required that the Commonwealth provide an adequate education for those enrolled in the public schools. It further defined "adequacy" by requiring that students possess specific capabilities including, "sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness."

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) created a science-based health education framework in response to the Supreme Judicial Court decision and passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993. However, the ESE has no mechanism to enforce compliance by school districts.

Previous Legislative Sponsors of the Health Education Bill

Senator Edward Augustus
Representative Alice Wolf

Senate Co-Sponsors

Gale Candaras Harriette Chandler Cynthia Creem Benjamin Downing Susan Fargo Robert Havern Patricia Jehlen Brian Joyce Michael Knapik Thomas McGee

Joan Menard Mark Montigny Richard Moore Pamela Resor Karen Spilka James Timility Richard Tisei Steven Tolman Susan Tucker Dianne Wilkerson

House Co-Sponsors

Willie Mae Allen Cory Atkins Ruth Balser William Brownsberger Jennifer Callahan Christine Canavan Thomas Conroy Robert Correia Michael Costello Steven D’Amico Stephen DiNatale James Eldridge Mark Falzone Michael Festa Barry Finegold Jennifer Flanagan Gloria Fox Anne Gobi Mary Grant Denis Guyer Patricia Haddad Lida Harkins

Kevin Honan Louis Kafka Rachel Kaprielian Jay Kaufman John Keenan Kay Khan Peter Kocot Peter Koutoujian Stephen Kulik William Lantigua David Linksy Barbara L’Italien Elizabeth Malia Ronald Mariano James Marzilli Allen McCarthy Michael Moran Matthew Patrick Sarah Peake Alice Peisch Douglas Petersen Anthony Petruccelli

William “Smitty” Pignatelli Denise Provost Pam Richardson Cheryl Rivera Byron Rushing Rosemary Sandlin Thomas Sannicandro John Scibak Carl Sciortino Frank Smizik Theodore Speliotis Thomas Stanley Ellen Story Benjamin Swan Walter Timilty Timothy Toomey David Torrisi Cleon Turner Anthony Verga Steven Walsh Martin Walsh Martha Walz