The Fayette County Public School System’s health curriculum has and will continue to emphasize that abstinence is the only truly safe measure that students can use to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. 
However, students who do decide to become sexually active now or in the future need information about how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and diseases. Health teachers do not encourage students to become sexually active. The school system fully understands that parents are their children’s first and most important teacher, and have the right to opt their children out of this part of the health curriculum.
It should be noted that the health curriculum also covers other age or developmentally appropriate topics such as nutrition, physical activity, human anatomy, and social and emotional well-being, and that only a small portion addresses human reproduction.
The overall goal of our program is to emphasize that health education is essential to maintain a high quality of life, and to have students successfully develop, establish, and achieve positive lifestyle goals that will lead to lifelong participation in health-promoting behaviors.
The K-12 health textbook adoption is a transparent process that is being conducted in accordance with Georgia Board of Education rules. The public can keep up with the progress of the health textbook selection committee by going to the following website: http://bit.ly/FayetteHPEAdoption. On the site, the public can view meeting dates of the committee, meeting agendas and minutes, a list of textbooks to be reviewed by the committee, and an adoption timeline.
Community members who wanted to serve on the health and/or physical education committee were invited to do so in October by completing an adoption committee survey, which was promoted on the school system’s website, through social media channels, and the local media. The school system followed Georgia Department of Education guidelines in establishing the composition of the committee. According to state rule 160-4-2-.12 COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM PLAN, “the committee shall be composed primarily of nonteaching parents who have children enrolled in the local public schools and who represent the diversity of the student body augmented by others such as educators, health professionals and other community representatives. The committee shall also include a male and female student currently attending the 11th or 12th grade in the public schools.”
There are 13 members on the health committee: three from faith-based organizations; one healthcare professional; one mental health professional; three parents (a healthcare professional, college mentor, and business owner); three educators with students in the school system; and two educators without students in the school system. Additionally, there are nine members on the physical education committee, and three members are serving on both committees due to their preference and expertise. Students will be added to committee as work on the textbook selection advances.
The committee held its first meeting in November at which members learned about their roles and responsibilities, and reviewed textbook vendor survey questions and a six-question scoring rubric that will be used to rate the vendors’ answers. Committee members received the sample textbooks and vendor survey answers in December to begin scoring them based on the rubric.
The committee will meet in January to listen to feedback from teacher committee members and to select the top textbook vendors based on the rubric scores. They will meet twice in February to hear presentations from the top textbook vendors and get feedback from teachers prior to selecting the recommended textbooks.
Recommended textbooks will be presented to the public in March for review, and adoption by the Fayette County Board of Education will take place in April or May.
