Q&A
Compliance with mandated hours for health education
0:47:41
·
75 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about compliance with the 54-hour mandate for health education. Despina Zaharakis provides the following information:
- 99.7% of high school students are meeting the mandate
- Only 58% of middle school students are meeting the mandate
- The DOE acknowledges the need for improvement in middle school compliance
- The Office of School Wellness Programs believes health education provides crucial life skills
- They are working with schools, teachers, superintendents, and central offices to improve compliance
- Efforts include ensuring understanding of the requirement, implementation strategies, and emphasizing its importance
Rita Joseph
0:47:41
On the administration?
0:47:42
Yes.
0:47:42
Yeah.
0:47:43
And out of the 54 hours that's mandated, are we meeting that mandate?
0:47:48
And how do we report on that?
Despina Zaharakis
0:47:50
Oh, I'm sorry.
0:47:51
I'm sorry.
0:47:52
Can you repeat that?
0:47:52
I didn't
Rita Joseph
0:47:53
On the 54 hours that's mandated, are we meeting the mandate?
Despina Zaharakis
0:47:58
We are meeting the mandate for 99.7% of high school students.
0:48:03
We are meeting the mandate for 58% of middle school students, and that is where we we must, focus our work.
0:48:14
We, as an office, believe that health education provides, as I said, the skills that students will need for the rest of their lives.
0:48:21
It's not just a content knowledge.
0:48:23
But I think, we we are not we're happy that there have been gains, but we're not happy with, you know, where we are.
0:48:33
We know we have a lot of work ahead of us.
0:48:35
58% of students meeting requirements, the 54 hour requirement at the middle school level is something that we need to work on.
0:48:42
And we're working on it with schools, teachers, superintendents, superintendent teams, central offices to make sure folks understand the requirement, how they can meet the requirement, and the importance of meeting the requirements.
