Lake Washington School District (LWSD) will offer two parent information and input sessions where community members will be able to view the proposed materials being considered for sexual health education, and give input.
Information nights will be held on April 23 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and May 3 from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Board Room at the Resource Center at 16250 NE 74th St., Redmond.
In 2016, Washington state adopted new Health and Physical Education standards, based on the National Health Education Standards that were adopted by the American Cancer Society in 2007. These standards include sexual health as a topic that includes recommended learning outcomes for students. While most Washington state standards are required, state law specifies that districts are not required to adopt all sexual health learning outcomes but are able to determine what learning outcomes in sexual health meet the needs of their communities.
In fall 2017, a committee of teachers, administrators, parents, nurses, and specialists was formed to determine recommendations for standards and curriculum for sexual health education in LWSD. The committee has gathered information throughout the year to make initial recommendations about sexual health topics and curriculum. The committee is seeking parent and community input on the recommendations.
To determine which standards were important to include in the students’ education, the LWSD committee met regularly over the year and considered research on effective practices and programs, district and school level data, guidance from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and student presentations in making a recommendation.
The committee has made an initial recommendation to adopt several lessons from the FLASH curriculum for the students in fourth and fifth grade and to adopt a full unit from FLASH for middle school and high school Health classes. FLASH is a science-based curriculum developed by King County Department of Health and is the most commonly used curriculum by public-school districts in our area.
The FLASH elementary curriculum, available here, for grades 4 through 5 has 18 lessons but the committee has recommended teaching only a subset of the lessons. Information about the FLASH curriculum is available here and the full curriculum is available for view upon request in the Curriculum Library at our Resource Center.
For further information or comments, please contact Jen Rose, Director of Teaching and Learning at jerose@lwsd.org.
