HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 94630        FILED ON: 4/26/2010

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 4630

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Ten

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An Act relative to health education..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

The department of elementary and secondary education shall conduct a statewide study and submit a report on the provision of health education by each school district and Commonwealth charter school.  The report shall include the following data for each public school and Commonwealth charter school: health education curriculum offered by grade level; the number of students receiving health education by grade level;  health education requirements by grade level; the number of students who opt-out of any portion of the health education curriculum under the provisions of section 32A of chapter 71; and the approximate number of hours spent, by grade level, on each of the 14 comprehensive health standards recommended in the Massachusetts comprehensive health curriculum frameworks.  The report shall also include the number of districts that are promoting effective health education programming and practices, including those programs and practices that are deemed less effective, and those that should be identified as model programs.  The department of elementary and secondary education, in consultation with the department of public health, shall report to the general court the results of its investigation and study and its recommendations, if any, together with any drafts of legislation necessary to carry out such recommendations, by filing the same with the clerk of the senate and house, who shall forward the same to the chairs of the joint committee on education, and the chairs of the senate and house committee on ways and means on or before June 30, 2011.  The department of elementary and secondary education shall submit an update to the joint committee on education on the status of efforts to complete this report on or before December 31, 2010.