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Health Protection Fund - Year V: 1998

February 27, 1998

Dear Educators and Interested Readers,

In Massachusetts, comprehensive school health education programs are made possible through the Health Protection Fund which dispenses state tobacco tax revenue to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This funding has been available for four years. In this time period, schools have worked to strengthen comprehensive health programs for students. Although it is still early in the process to evaluate the effect of this fund on risk behaviors of students, the Department has prepared a status report which contains information useful for consideration at the local, state, and national levels.

This status report contains the following information:

€Allocation of state funds in the major budget categories of grants to school districts.
€Relational trends between comprehensive school health education programs and reduced student risk behaviors. These relationships are discussed both for tobacco prevention education and reduced student tobacco use and for other types of prevention education and reduced risk behavior.
€A plan of action for 1998 for both tobacco prevention education and cessation and for prevention education in general.

It is important to recognize that these findings suggest relationships between factors and should not be interpreted as statements of cause and effect. The findings are informative and will guide our future research. We need to be sure that the state funds are being used effectively by schools to reduce student use of tobacco, drugs, alcohol, and other risk behaviors, but understand that affecting behavior is a slow process that must be sustained in order to succeed.The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will continue to study comprehensive school health education, with specific attention to tobacco prevention education and cessation, in order to provide a fuller understanding of the relationships between health education program practices and their impact on student behavior.

Sincerely,

Robert V. Antonucci
Commissioner of Education

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