The Cy-Fair ISD board of trustees voted 4-2 during a Jan. 16 meeting to remove the Health I course as a graduation requirement. Trustees Julie Hinaman and Natalie Blasingame were opposed to the motion.

Following a recommendation from the School Health Advisory Council, the course will be offered as an elective instead.

According to the district’s course description, this class covers “knowledge and behaviors [students] use to safeguard their health,” including abstinence-based sex education.

How we got here

In 2009, Texas removed health education from the high school graduation requirements, allowing individual school districts to decide whether to include it in their curriculum.

As required by the Texas Education Code, CFISD asked SHAC to develop a recommendation before changing the district’s health education curriculum.

The breakdown

SHAC surveyed 6,595 parents and 33,686 CFISD students to gauge support for keeping high school health a graduation requirement or making it an elective.

• 75% of parents (4,917) supported keeping it as a graduation requirement
• 77% of parents (5,068) said they’d support it as an elective
• 59% of students (19,931) supported keeping it as a graduation requirement
• 79% of students (26,718) said they’d support it as an elective

Ashley Clayburn, CFISD's associate superintendent for district improvement and accountability, said the survey was administered to students during English class, and parents completed it through an email link.

After reviewing the survey results, SHAC members met Dec. 3 to discuss and vote on a recommendation for the board of trustees.

What happens next?

Making health class an elective means content still required by state law will be integrated into other subjects.

CFISD Chief Academic Officer Tonya Goree said the school district plans to incorporate topics such as substance abuse prevention, CPR instruction and mental health into courses like biology, physical education and PACE, or Personal, Academic and Career Exploration.