District Health & Wellness Update
December 14th, 2023
HPS Update on DESE's Health & Physical Education Curriculum Frameworks Dec 2023
Submitted by:
- Dr. Joanne Menard, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
- Dr. Ida Pappas, Prek-12+ Unified Arts Curriculum Coordinator
Adoption of New Frameworks
The state of Massachusette in August 2023 adopted new Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Curriculum Frameworks. As a public school district, Holliston is required to meet these standards through our Wellness curriculum.
Key Developments & Shifts in Frameworks
According to the DESE frameworks (pages 7-8), some of the changes are:
• A stronger emphasis on practices – the processes and skills needed to promote and maintain lifelong physical, mental/emotional, and social health.
• A more explicit representation and integration of physical education that recognizes the contribution that physical education makes to overall student health and well-being.
• A clear articulation of social and emotional competencies that can apply across the school curriculum and be integrated into any content area.
• Updates to reflect current and ever-changing technology, social media, and other influences on health and well-being.
• Updates to acknowledge that students are increasingly using media and technology to access information and services related to health and health care and emphasizing the importance of including media literacy as a component of health and well-being.
• A more deliberate integration of skills for personal safety, maintaining personal boundaries, and child sexual abuse prevention through a trauma-informed lens.
• A trauma-sensitive perspective that supports and encourages students in their learning while recognizing that students bring individual and unique needs to the classroom.
• Updated guiding principles that encourage a whole school, whole community, whole child approach and emphasize the application of the practices across disciplines, throughout school programming and coordinated planning across the curriculum.
• An emphasis on key skills and content to support students to understand, identify and seek help for mental health concerns in themselves or others.
For more details, please refer to DESE document linked above.
District Commitment to Safe & Supportive Schools and Gender Identity Support
The newly adopted frameworks does cover Gender Identity Support which Holliston is fully committed to as we:
- follow DESE guidelines on Safe & Supportive Schools Please check out the link for many family resources.
- The Holliston School Committee has adopted an additional policy on Gender Identify Support, which states: "HPS supports the integration of best practices around transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming students into curriculum, school culture, and all school activities where appropriate." The full policy is below.
Student Requirements
Since Holliston is a Massachusetts public school district, we are required to teach all state curriculum frameworks. Parental/notification of our puberty unit still will take place and students do have the ability to have alternative assignments for that unit only. All other topics and units are required, so attendance is taken and all assignments are required for their wellness class.