Dear 7th Parent/Guardian:
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 teach these lessons.
Save the Date: Parent Information Session
Prior to classroom lessons, you are invited to attend an online parent information session on February 5 from 6:00-7:30pm (this will be recorded for those that can not attend). This session will help you:
- Learn what your child will be taught in the classroom
- Understand how lessons connect to the California Healthy Youth Act
- Learn tools for supporting your child’s learning at home
- Understand procedures for indicating “opt-out” for your child
Please click the link below to join the webinar on February 5th from 6:00-7:30pm
https://cusdk8.zoom.us/j/86961010705?pwd=ak7iDQe9areVstqVkhktQkW2Sc7YXl.1
Topics of Instruction
The California Healthy Youth Act requires that comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education be provided to students at least once in middle school or junior high school and once in high school. Per the California Healthy Youth Act, instruction must be medically accurate, age‐appropriate and inclusive of all students, and must encourage students to communicate with parents, guardians or other trusted adults about human sexuality.
The following topics must be taught and/or addressed with students:
- Information about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including transmission, FDA approved methods to prevent HIV and STIs, and treatment.
- Information that abstinence is the only certain way to prevent unintended pregnancy and HIV and other STIs, and information about value of delaying sexual activity
- Discussion about social views of HIV and AIDS
- Information about a student’s right to access confidential medical care resources for sexual and reproductive health care
- Information about pregnancy, including FDA approved prevention methods, pregnancy outcomes, prenatal care, and the newborn safe surrender law
- Information about sexual orientation and gender, including the harm of negative gender stereotypes
- Information about healthy relationships and avoiding unhealthy behaviors and situations
Tentative Dates for Instruction:
CMS: May 12th - May 30th
Hyde: May 12th - May 30th
Kennedy: May 12th - May 30th
Lawson: May 12th - May 30th
McAuliffe: May 12th - May 30th
Miller: May 19th - June 4th
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 pertaining to human development 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 alternate lessons here.
Resources
- Find updated information on our website.
- Parent resources from our adopted curriculum: Positive Prevention Plus
- 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 (prychodko_nick@cusdk8.org), HGD/CSE Lead
Allison Liner (liner_allison@cusdk8.org), Deputy Superintendent