November 7, 2023 

Dearest Colleagues,

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate indigenous peoples past, present, and future. It is a powerful opportunity to connect culture, history, current affairs, and identities of indigenous peoples into sexuality education and health classrooms. By using the Tribal History/Shared History Health lessons, and exploring film and art, educators can attend to the historic erasure of indigenous people and have conversations around the influence of culture, identity, and public health policies on sexual and reproductive health.

The week of November 13th-19th is also Transgender Awareness Week, with November 20th marking Transgender Day of Remembrance; a time when transgender people and allies take action to bring attention to the transgender community and work to help create safer and more inclusive communities for students. Transgender youth are an integral part of Oregon schools. According to self-reported 6th, 8th, and 11th-grade data from the 2020 Oregon Student Health Survey (SHS), 8% of Oregon’s students are transgender, gender expansive, or questioning. Data show that many LGBTQ+ youth in Oregon do not feel safe at school, often due to a lack of inclusive curriculum and school policies. Oregon’s 2020 Student Health Survey found that 35.6% of gender-expansive 11th graders, 26.5% of gender-expansive 8th graders, and 19% of gender-expansive 6th graders had experienced bullying at school in the past 30 days. The ODE’s LGBTQ2SIA+ Student Success Plan offers many resources for cultivating safer and more inclusive communities in our schools. 

This newsletter includes announcements, research, resources, and opportunities for training, as well as other offerings by statewide and national colleagues related to sexuality education.

Section photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Header photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash, Newberg, OR

On October 19th, 2023, the Oregon State Board of Education adopted new K-12 Health Education Standards. ODE, a statewide Health Education Panel, and countless partners worked over the last year and a half to draft, revise, and solidify the new K-12 standards that will guide Health Education in Oregon Public Schools for the next 7 years. The new standards reflect updated national education standards, research on best practices in health education, newly passed Oregon laws, and adolescent health data from student health surveys. In response to feedback, these standards are more concise and more readily accessible for educators to use. 

New and expanded health topics include: 

• oral health
• organ and tissue donation
• eating disorder prevention
• synthetic opioid overdose prevention and response
• access to sexual and reproductive healthcare
• violence and trafficking prevention
• menstruation, menstrual products, and menstrual dignity
• examination of historical influences and social justice in relation to health equity

Schools will have until the 2025-26 school year to fully implement the new standards. Please sign up for the Sexuality Education Newsletter and the Health/PE Newsletter for more information and opportunities, including supplemental materials, resources, professional development, and informational sessions about these new standards.

On October 19, 2023, the State Board voted to link requirements of the Menstrual Dignity for Students Rules (OAR 581-021-0590 and OAR 581-021-0593) to Division 22 with the adoption of a new rule, OAR 581-022-2515. While the new Division 22 rule does not change the requirements or intention of the original Menstrual Dignity Act, it will enhance ODE’s ability to provide technical support to schools and districts in their efforts to provide menstrual product options that are free and privately accessible to all students. 

The Division 22 Standards Assurances Process requires that school districts certify to their local community, school board, and ODE that they are in compliance with Division 22 Standards. A district is in compliance with Division 22 if they provide required menstrual health education and stock menstrual products in every student bathroom. Districts will first report on compliance with this rule for the current 2023-24 school year on their Division 22 Standards Assurances in November 2024. Districts that report out of compliance at that time will have until the beginning of the 2025-26 school year to complete corrective action and come into compliance. 

Please see the Menstrual Dignity Toolkit for more details regarding requirements.