N.Y. Education Law § 804-a: Comprehensive school health education demonstration program

§ 804-a. Comprehensive school health education demonstration program.

1. Within the amounts appropriated, the commissioner is hereby

authorized to establish a demonstration program and to distribute state

funds to local school districts, boards of cooperative educational

services and in certain instances community school districts, for the

development, implementation, evaluation, validation, demonstration and

replication of exemplary comprehensive health education programs to

assist the public schools in developing curricula, training staff, and

addressing local health education needs of students, parents, and staff.

2. School districts or BOCES may contract with appropriate agencies or

organizations to participate in such program. Such program shall be

limited to health education at the elementary level and shall be

designed on a multi-year basis. Such program shall include but not be

limited to the following components:

a. Developer grants for comprehensive school health education

programs.

(i) Such grants shall include the development, implementation, and

evaluation of a comprehensive health education program including such

activities as:

(A) coordination of health instruction with other available programs

in the school and the community related to health education;

(B) provision of inservice training and materials for elementary level

school teachers in comprehensive health education;

(C) development and implementation of evaluation procedures to measure

students' knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes prior to and after

project implementation; and

(D) development and implementation of a mechanism for project

maintenance and long-range programming.

(ii) Upon successful completion of the above activities and the

availability of funds, such grant recipients will assist other local

educational agencies with replication.

b. Health education regional training centers. Regional training

centers for the purpose of developing materials and providing training

programs to meet the needs of teachers statewide in the implementation

of comprehensive school health education programs at the elementary

level will be established.

c. Statewide advocacy for comprehensive health education. Development

and implementation of a statewide advocacy program to create an

awareness on the part of school administrators of the need to develop

strategies for implementing comprehensive school health education

programs at the elementary level.

d. Replication of validated health education programs. Grants will be

awarded to local school districts or boards of cooperative educational

services for the replication of nationally or state-validated exemplary

health education programs.