Q&A
Factors contributing to 0% compliance in HIV/AIDS education
1:37:49
·
3 min
Council Member Rita Joseph questions why many schools reported 0% compliance with required HIV/AIDS education lessons. NYC Public Schools officials explain various factors contributing to this issue.
- Administrative barriers include challenges in programming and scheduling HIV/AIDS lessons
- Teacher-related challenges include discomfort, lack of preparation, and fear of community backlash
- There's a misconception that HIV/AIDS education is no longer relevant for young people
- The department has updated the curriculum to make it more engaging and relevant
Rita Joseph
1:37:49
Many, individual schools reported 0 students, received the required number of lessons in HIV and AIDS for 2023 2024.
1:37:59
And what is the main main factor contributing to the 0% outcome?
Despina Zaharakis
1:38:05
0% of students having a health education.
1:38:08
HIV.
1:38:09
I'm sorry.
Rita Joseph
1:38:10
HIV education for 2024 and 20 2023 and 2024 school years.
1:38:15
We're seeing a 0%.
Despina Zaharakis
1:38:16
Yep.
1:38:17
I can talk about some of the barriers, in terms from an administrative point of view, and then Sarah can talk a little bit about the instructional point of view.
1:38:25
Administrative, I think, every student needs their HIV lessons every year.
1:38:35
Sometimes it's it's easy for students who are programmed for health education to receive their HIV lessons in health education.
1:38:43
For the students who are not, that administration or a teacher or an AP, somebody needs to think about where are the students getting the number of lessons that they need, who is teaching them, and when are they getting them.
1:38:58
And some and and, frankly, some folks don't know how to do it.
1:39:03
Some folks know how to do it well, some administrators.
1:39:06
And part of what we're doing is understanding the schools that are doing it, that are providing the lessons to a 100% of their students in smart ways, meaning the way they choose who's providing the instruction, when the students are getting the lessons.
1:39:21
How is this message to the school community, including families?
1:39:25
We're trying to sort of capture best practices to share with schools that are not providing students with their HIV lessons because I think in many cases, it's just not grasping what needs to be done.
1:39:39
Because it's about teachers, it's about programming, it's about timing, and what are they not gonna have during their school day in order to have the HIV lesson.
1:39:49
So that's one piece of it.
1:39:51
But I think the other piece is just the teachers themselves.
Narrator in Shown Video
1:39:55
Yeah.
1:39:55
I think the other piece is because it is, required every single year and there are not enough, you know, licensed and certified teachers to cover that class that those 5 or 6 lessons every single year, including the years when they don't have a health education class, many teachers might feel uncomfortable, unprepared, or or what we often hear is fearing backlash, from the community, from parents, etcetera.
1:40:18
And so this is one of the things that we really try to address in our trainings, both the self guided and the live, is, what resources are available, what the policies are, and how folks can handle those, you know, uncomfortable questions that are gonna naturally come up so that they don't have to be so nervous about it.
1:40:37
I think there's also a a sort of public misconception that HIV and AIDS are no longer relevant for young people, which further can sometimes limit the buy in from from administrators and teachers who already have so many competing priorities, but we know that it it is just as important as ever, given, you know, that that young people do have the, the most sexual health risk, right, of of, as compared to other age groups.
1:41:02
And so I think, you know, I think that a lot of it is about training and messaging and getting folks to understand that this is still a relevant topic and that the education that they're getting now doesn't look like what they got in the past.
1:41:15
The new curriculum isn't just about, you know, the science of HIV.
1:41:20
It's much more about the skills that students need to keep themselves healthy and safe for a lifetime.
1:41:24
And so I think once folks we're really proud of the fact that we jumped 20% points in compliance last year, and I think a lot of that was due to having a new updated engaging curriculum that, that folks can see as relevant to
Rita Joseph
1:41:36
their students.
