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1998 Massachusetts School Health Education Profile Report

Parent Involvement in Health Education

Parental involvement and support are important factors in the success of school health education. An awareness of parental concerns with respect to school health programs can aid school administrators and educators in presenting health education in ways that will gain the support of parents. Further, involving parents in the health education curriculum is critical in providing students with frequent exposure to consistent messages about health (Allensworth, 1993; Kolbe, 1993). Young people are more likely to develop good health habits and to avoid risk-taking behaviors when health messages are reinforced in both home and school.

Parent Involvement: School principals and teachers were asked about forms of parental involvement in health education.

• Over three-quarters of principals (78%) indicated that their schools had some form of parent involvement program.
• Parents are members of 89% of school health advisory councils, down from 100% involvement in 1996.
• Over three-quarters of lead health teachers (77%) reported that they had used one or more strategies to increase parental involvement in health education, such as sending educational materials or newsletters home, providing school programs on health education for parents, or inviting parents to attend health classes. (See Figure 13, next page.)
• Most teachers (61%) reported that they had used two or more of the above methods to increase parent involvement in health education programs.
• In almost one third of schools (32%) teachers also used one or more strategies to increase parental involvement in HIV/AIDS education specifically, for example by sending materials home about HIV/AIDS prevention or inviting parents to attend classes or school programs on HIV/AIDS. (See Figure 13, next page.)
• Most, but not all, schools (94%) currently have in place a policy regarding parental notification concerning sexuality curricula and programs, as required by Massachusetts law.
• Principals in eighty-five percent of schools reported that students could be exempted or excused from all or part of a required health education course by parental request. Middle schools and high schools were roughly similar with regard to permitting exemptions (88% and 84%, respectively.)

• In those schools that did permit students to be exempt from health education by parental request, most principals (91%) reported that fewer than 1% of students were actually excused. Seven percent (7%) reported exemptions for 1% to 5% of students, and no principals reported that any more than five percent of students had been excused from health education.

Parental Feedback: Principals and teachers reported on the kinds of feedback about health education that they received from parents, and about the effects of that feedback on the health education curriculum.

• Nearly two-thirds of principals (64%) reported receiving positive feedback from parents regarding health education. In contrast, 5% reported receiving feedback that was equally balanced between positive and negative, and only 1% reported that parental feedback about health education was mainly negative. (Thirty percent received no parental feedback.)
• Predominantly positive feedback was reported somewhat more frequently by principals in middle schools (67%) than by those in high schools (61%).
• Proportions of positive and negative parental feedback have not changed significantly since 1994.
• When asked about how parental feedback had influenced the health education curriculum, teachers were far more likely to report that content coverage of different topics had expanded due to feedback than that it had contracted. Specific topics for which teachers were most likely to report expanded coverage due to parental feedback were:
• conflict resolution/violence prevention (reported by 21% of teachers)
• alcohol and drug use prevention (18% of teachers)
• tobacco use prevention (15%)
• dietary behaviors and nutrition (14%)
• sexual harassment (14%)
• emotional and mental health (11%)
• HIV prevention (11%)
• pregnancy prevention (9%)
• Schools that actively involved parents in HIV/AIDS education (see Figure 13) were significantly more likely than those that did not to also report that they had expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS education due to parental feedback (17% vs. 7%). The more strategies a school used, the more likely teachers were to report that they had expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS instruction.

Parental feedback: leading to the limiting of content coverage was rare, but when it did occur it was most likely to involve topics related to sexuality, such as:

• human sexuality (limited by 11% of teachers due to parental feedback)
• pregnancy prevention (8% of teachers)
• reproductive health (8%)
• HIV prevention (7%)
• sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention (7%)
• Limiting coverage of topics related to sexuality was somewhat more common in middle schools than in high schools. Restricting coverage of HIV/AIDS prevention due to parental feedback, for example, was reported by 10% of middle school teachers but only 5% of high school teachers.

Summary and Implications.

Most Massachusetts secondary schools make active efforts to involve parents in their health education programs by including them as members of health advisory councils, sending home health-related materials, and inviting them to health classes and health-related school events. Most parental feedback about school health education is positive. Teachers are more likely to expand content coverage due to parental feedback than to restrict or limit coverage. Although most schools permit students to be excused from all or part of health education at parental request, such requests are rare.

Strong parent involvement in school health education helps build support for comprehensive school health programs. Such involvement also increases the likelihood that youth will receive clear and consistent messages about the value of developing good health habits and avoiding health-related risks. Continued school efforts to communicate with parents and engage them in school health programs is important.

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