612 Health Education

Students shall receive, as part of their health education, instruction about personal health; food and nutrition; environmental health; safety and survival skills; consumer health; family life; human growth and development; substance abuse and non-use, including the effects of alcohol, nicotine, drugs, and poisons on the human body; human sexuality; self-esteem; stress management; interpersonal relationships; emotional and social health; health resources; prevention and control of disease; communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; and current crucial health issues. The purpose of the health education program is to help each student protect, improve, and maintain physical, emotional, and social well-being.

The instruction provided shall be adapted in each grade level to aid understanding by the students. Parents who object to health education instruction in human growth and development may file a written request that the student be excused from that instruction. The written request shall include a proposed alternate activity or study acceptable to the superintendent. The superintendent shall have the final authority to determine the alternate activity or study.