Elementary Health Education

Comprehensive Health Education

Health Education provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to be healthy throughout their lifetime. The intent of a comprehensive health education program is to motivate students to maintain and improve their health, prevent disease, and avoid or reduce health related risk behaviors.

Florida State Statute 1003.42 (2)(n) - Required Instruction

(n)1. Comprehensive age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate K-12 health education that addresses concepts of community health, consumer health, environmental health, and family life, including:

Mental and emotional health

Injury prevention and safety
Internet safety
Nutrition
Personal health
Prevention and control of disease
Substance use and abuse.
Prevention of child sexual abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking.

2. The health education curriculum for students in grades 7 through 12 shall include a teen dating violence and abuse component that includes, but is not limited to, the definition of dating violence and abuse, the warning signs of dating violence and abusive behavior, the characteristics of healthy relationships, measures to prevent and stop dating violence and abuse, and community resources available to victims of dating violence and abuse.

3. The health education for students in grades 6 through 12 shall include awareness of the benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy.

(o) Such additional materials, subjects, courses, or fields in such grades as are prescribed by law or by rules of the State Board of Education and the district school board in fulfilling the requirements of law.

Civic and Character Education and Life Skills Education Through Resiliency Education

Civic and Character Education and Life Skills Education Through Resiliency Education Related Rule Information

Civic and Character Education and Life Skills Education Through Resiliency Education
6A-1.094124 Required Instruction Planning and Reporting.
School districts must annually provide a minimum of five (5) hours of data driven instruction to students in grades 6-12 related to civic and character education and life skills education through resiliency education using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards.
The instruction will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building and must address, at a minimum, the following topics:

Strategies specific to demonstrating resiliency through adversity, including the benefits of service to the community through volunteerism.
Strategies to develop healthy characteristics that reinforce positive core values and foster resiliency such as:

a. Empathy, perseverance, grit, gratitude, and responsibility

b. Critical thinking, problem solving, and responsible decision making.

c. Self-awareness and self-management

d. Mentorship and citizenship

e. Honesty

Recognition of the signs and symptoms of mental health concerns

4. Promotion of resiliency to empower youth to persevere and reverse the harmful stigma of mental health by reframing the approach from mental health education to resiliency education.

5. Strategies to support a peer, friend, or family member through adversity

6. Prevention of suicide

7. Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs

8. Awareness of local and community resources and the process for accessing assistance

(5) Substance Use and Abuse Health Education.

(a) School districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to youth substance use and abuse health education.

b) Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for substance use and abuse education will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building.

(6) Child Trafficking Prevention Education.

(a) It is the intent of the State Board of Education that every school in Florida be a “Child Trafficking Free Zone.”

(b) School districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness.

(c) Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for child trafficking prevention will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building.

(d) Age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs and instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness and must address, at a minimum, the following topics:

1. Recognition of signs of human trafficking.

2. Awareness of resources, including national, state and local resources.

3. Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs.

4. Information on the prevalence, nature, and strategies to reduce the risk of human trafficking, techniques to set healthy boundaries, and how to safely seek assistance; and

5. Information on how social media and mobile device applications are used for human trafficking.

Human Trafficking Awareness

Did you know?

Florida is third in the nation for reported human trafficking cases.

What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking, under both federal and Florida law, is defined as the transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring, providing or obtaining of another person for transport; for the purposes of forced labor, domestic servitude or sexual exploitation using force, fraud and/or coercion. Human trafficking is modern slavery.

There are approximately 30 million people enslaved throughout the world with 2.5 million located right here in the United States.

Many of these victims are lured with false promises of financial or emotional security; instead, they are forced or coerced into commercial sex (prostitution), domestic servitude or other types of forced labor.
Any minor under the age of 18 who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is a victim of human trafficking according to U.S. law, regardless of whether there is force, fraud or coercion. Increasingly, criminal organizations, such as gangs, are luring children from local schools into commercial sexual exploitation or trafficking.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, every two minutes a child is trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the United States.

Pursuant to State Board of Education Rule 6A-1.094124, Florida Administrative Code, Required Instruction Planning and Reporting, school districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness. Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for child trafficking prevention will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building. Age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs and instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness and must address, at a minimum, the following topics:

Recognition of signs of human trafficking;
Awareness of resources, including national, state and local resources;
Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs;
Information on the prevalence, nature, and strategies to reduce the risk of human trafficking, techniques to set healthy boundaries, and how to safely seek assistance; and
Information on how social media and mobile device applications are used for human trafficking.

Children and adults can be victims of human trafficking. “If you see something, say something.”

Florida Abuse Hotline - 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873)
If You See Something, Say SomethingTM 1-855-FLA-SAFE (1-855-352-7233)
Local Law Enforcement - 911
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline
National Human Trafficking Hotline - 1-888-373-7888
BeFree Textline Text "BeFree" (233733)

Resources

Florida

National

For more information and resources, please visit the FLDOE Human Trafficking webpage: Human Trafficking.

Florida Statute - Human Trafficking

FLDOE Elementary Health Education Tool Kit

Dr. Wendy Smith, Director, Elementary Programs

Smith.wendy@brevardschools.org

321-633-1000 ext. 11340

Danielle O'Reilly, Content Specialist

K-12 Health/PE, Driver Education, and JROTC

oreilly.danielle@brevardschools.org

321-633-1000 ext. 11387