j----_. - New York Civil Liberties Union

Mahopac 352
Teaching positive health behaviors such as
self-esteem, respect for others, and decision
making will help students understand the
immediate and long-term benefits of abstàirting
from sexual activity and illegal drug use. The
students' learning and practicing positive health
behaviors will be as important to them as their
acquisition of knowledge.
• AIDS instruction is a shared responsibility. Its
success will depend upon the cooperation of all
school personnel and the participation of the
home and the community:
• For the immediate future, educators will be faced
with the challenge of reaching secondary students
who need to know about AIDS but who
may have already taken their health education
courses. These students, too, will need to receive
AIDS instruction.
• Knowledge about AIDS is continuously changing.
Reasonable means for updating the knowledge
base of school personnel are a necessity for
accurate instruction.
• AIDS instruction will require dealing with the
concerns of some community members about
addressing sensitive, personal, lifestyle issues in
the classroom.
• Educators will need to provide for AIDS instruction
that is age-appropriate, is consistent with
community values, and stresses abstinence as the
most appropriate and effective premarital protection
against AIDS.
• Educators will need to address the challenge of
teaching issues that involve moral decisions,
values, and personal feelings.
Though the nature and content of AIDS instruction
in schools require a larger and more diverse group to be
involved in curriculum planning, and though the board
of education has ultimate authority to approve all programs,
there are common procedures to be followed in
the development of curriculum for any subject. The
steps for undertaking this process are summarized be-
~w: "
8
1. Designate an Advisory Council
2. Review current materials (State laws, regulations,
syllabus recommendations, and past and current
education efforts)
3. Conduct a needs assessment and establish
priorities
4. Identify resources (school and community)
5. Develop an AIDS instructional philosophy
6. Develop an AIDS instructional program
7. Conduct community awareness activities
8. Conduct staff training
9. Implement the AIDS instructional program
10. Evaluate, update, and revise the program".
1. Designate an Advisory Council
An Advisory Council shall be appointed, consisting
of those who will be affected by the decisions to be
made, specifically, school board members, school administrators.rcurriculum
developers, health educators,
health-related school personnel, elementary and secondary
teachers, and healthand service personnel.
Parents, parent organízaticns, students, community
agency representatives, representàtives fralri reÚgious
organizations, and other community members also
need to be involved. The council should reflect the racial
and ethnic diversity of thecommunity.While it is
important that members concur on the significance of
AIDS instruction, council members "should reflect a
broad rangé of community perspéctives. "
Some kind of organizational structure needs to be
established. This will vary, depending upon the size
and complexity of the school district. It may be desirable
to have subgroups for elementary and secondary
levels. If so, it is essential to provide a means for regular
communication between the two since the integration
of the total curriculum is important.
Districts may want to assign the Advisory Council
the responsibility of making recommendations along
each of the steps in the process, or districts may seek
recommendations concerning content, implémentatian,
and evaluation of an AIDS instructional program.
In either case, all steps in the program 'process should
be carried out.
2. Review Current Materials
A survey of current materials is essential, and should
be collected and made available for group discussion
before the assigned task is undertaken. A collection of
materials might include:
• State laws, regulations,
affecting curriculum
and recommendations
• the Health Education Syllabus: Grades K-12
• school board resolutions or recommendations
regarding health education, AIDS education,
substance abuse education, family life education,
etc.
• the guide Family Life/Human Sexuality Education: A
Program Planning Guide for School District Administrators,
published by the State Education Department,
Bureau of Health and Drug Education and
Services "
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