Human Growth and Development

February 1, 2023

Dear 5th Grade Parent/Guardian:

The purpose of this letter is to provide you with an opportunity to state your preference for your child’s puberty instruction. Our priority is to honor each parent/guardian's choice for their child’s instruction. Your responses will be shared with your school principal and classes will be coordinated at each school site. All classes will be taught by the school’s 5th grade teachers who will be trained by Puberty Talk and Positive Prevention Plus consultants. Lessons will be scheduled for May/June 2023. This spring, your school will provide information on the teaching schedule for your child's classroom. Please complete your selection no later than February 24th, 2023.

Please note, if you do not indicate a choice or inform your school principal that you want to opt-out of lessons, your child will either remain with their classroom teacher and receive instruction from the program their teacher is teaching or they will participate with another 5th grade teacher’s classroom where space is available.

Choices: (Link to Parent Square document with selection form)

• Choose Puberty Talk (PT) lessons.

• Choose Positive Prevention Plus (PPP) lessons.

• No Preference (We will try our best to keep students with their classroom teacher for HGD instruction)

Opt-Out

State law allows a parent/guardian to remove (opt-out) their student from this instruction, either selected lessons or the entire program. Students who are not participating in puberty lesson(s) will complete an alternate set of lessons aligned to the California Health Standards for Grade 5. You can find a copy of those lessons here. If you do not want your student to participate in puberty education, please send a written request to your school principal by Friday, February 24th 2022. If you plan to remove your student from specific lessons only, please list those lessons on your written request. You can find a list of the lessons on the Scope and Sequence document linked below.

Learn More

• Find the slides from our Positive Prevention Plus and Puberty Talk Information Night HERE.

• CUSD Lesson Outline for Parents 2022-2023. This document is a side by side view of PT and PPP lesson descriptions.

• Parents/guardians have the right to request copies of Education Code 51930-51939, and may do so by sending an email to Miko Pennington (pennington_miko@cusdk8.org) in the Educational Services Department. 

• Visit the California Department of Education website: Comprehensive Sexual Health & HIV/AIDS Instruction - Health (CA Dept of Education)

• Helpful resources for you and your pre-teen

• Schedule an appointment to view the full curriculum of Puberty Talk and Positive Prevention Plus. These viewing appointments will be held in person in the Boardroom at the District Office.  CLICK HERE to schedule an appointment.

 

Sincerely,

Nick Prychodko, Director of Instructional Leadership and Intervention

prychodko_nick@cusdk8.org

Allison Liner, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services

liner_allison@cusdk8.org

 

February 15, 2023

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Thank you for attending our 7th Grade Parent Information Session on Monday, February 13th. If you were unable to attend you can find a link to recording HERE. The slides that were shared can be found HERE.

In-Person Materials Review:

To schedule an appointment to view the Positive Prevention Plus materials CLICK HERE. These viewing appointments will be held in person in the Boardroom at the District Office (1309 S Mary Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94087). 

Reminders: 

Cupertino Union School District middle schools will be providing comprehensive sexual health education to 7th grade students using the Positive Prevention Plus program. Your student’s science teacher will deliver this instruction using the Positive Prevention Plus curriculum. An outline of the lessons can be found HERE.

Tentative Dates for Instruction:

• CMS: May 15th - June 2nd
• Hyde: May 15th - June 2nd
• Kennedy: May 15th - June 2nd
• Lawson: March 8 - March 24
• McAuliffe: May 2nd - June 1st
• Miller: May 23rd - June 9th

Procedures for Opt-Out:

State law allows a parent/guardian to remove (opt-out) their student from this instruction. Parents/guardians may opt-out of selected lessons that discuss human reproductive organs and/or their functions or the entire program. Please note that if a parent/guardian opts their child out of selected lessons, there is a chance that topic may come up again during one of the following lessons through student or classroom discussions. Parents who wish to opt-out of all or part of the sexual health and HIV-AIDS prevention instruction should send a letter or email to the school principal specifying:

• Their child’s name and grade level

• A statement expressing the parent’s or guardian’s choice to opt-out of this curriculum for their student

• The specific lessons that the parent/guardian does not want their child to receive. (Please reference the scope and sequence of lessons provided during the information session) 

• Contact information for the parent/guardian

Students who do not participate in these lessons will be assigned an alternate curriculum addressing grade level health standards including topics such as nutrition, stress, and screen time. You can find links to the lessons here.

Resources:

• Parent resources from our adopted curriculum: Positive Prevention Plus 

• PPP Homework overview and conversation prompts for parents and caregivers

• Additional updates and resources can be found on our website.

• Parents/guardians have the right to request copies of Education Code 51933, 51934, 51938, and 51930-51939. You may do so by sending an email to Miko Pennington (pennington_miko@cusdk8.org) in the Educational Services Department. 

• Visit the California Department of Education website: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/se/

• If you have additional questions, please reach out to your child’s science teacher or your school site principal. 

Sincerely,

Nick Prychodko, Director of Instructional Leadership and Intervention

prychodko_nick@cusdk8.org

Allison Liner, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services

liner_allison@cusdk8.org