SEDAC Listening Sessions March 2021 9 Key Takeaways and Conclusion

SEDAC Listening Sessions March 2021
               9 Key Takeaways and Conclusion
1. Current curriculum needs to provide more breadth
       o All parents expressed the need to have a more expansive curriculum that started in
         the youngest years.
       o Some parents referred to the videos starting in 4th grade as “traumatic” and abrupt
         because their kids had no foundational knowledge.
       o Teaching via videos did not allow the students time to absorb the content, ask
         questions and created a lot of confusion. One mom even shared that her son was
         very confused and thought he was going to ‘start his period soon.”
       o The start-stop nature of the curriculum is disjointed because it does not build across
         the grade spans.

2. Current curriculum needs to provide more continuity of learning
       o Duration of all classes decreases learning opportunities and retention.
       o The gaps of when the classes are offered also posed challenges - parents expressed
         concern about losing foundational information if they opted out of the younger
         grades because their child wasn’t ready.
       o Information needs to be broken down over longer period of time to allow students
         to process and more time for discussion.
       o For some students, the disjointed curriculum compounded challenges with abstract
         thinking (e.g, how does having a period link to having sex, pregnancy or STDs)
       o Parents described the shock and resulting “trauma” of the disconnected videos and
         lessons in grades 4-6 and 7th.
       o Disconnectedness of curriculum, inconsistent instructional strategies...limits access
         points (on-ramps) to knowledge acquisition.

3. Current curriculum needs to provide more depth of learning to help with retention and
   understanding
       o Parents questioned how learning would assessed when delivery is 1 lesson via video
         for grades 4-6, only offered for 2 weeks in 7th and 1 semester in 9th.
       o Parents expressed that instructional strategies need to be more thoughtful to avoid
         unconscious messages about shame, mystery of the opposite sex
       o In the older grades, it would be helpful to have opportunities to allow the students
         time to apply their learning to potential real-life scenarios (practicing with social
         stories and helping to decode social cues)
       o The curriculum needs to be more intentional about representation - be culturally
         sensitive, representative of ALL students - (ethnicity, gender, ability, etc.)

o Parents expressed the need to have more time on the important topics that will
         provide more access and differentiated instructional strategies – one mom said,
         “my son doesn’t respond to open ended questions, and often feels embarrassed to
         speak in class”

4. Kids need a safe space/person and school resources to ask questions and to talk to an
   adult.
       o Kids need a “safe place” and someone they feel comfortable with to talk to - not all
         kids can talk to their parent
       o Some kids may need a different environment to “debrief” and/or “prime” that will
         reduce the feeling of trauma
       o Most parents shared ideas for other resources such as online with a therapist (ABA,
         speech, OT, PT, MFT, Psychologist, peer group) as a way to provide additional
         support and accommodate learning needs
       o A parent suggested the need to have more male support, her son feels more
         comfortable around men.
       o Parents mentioned that most kids get information from their peers, which is good
         and bad, because it depends on the accuracy and knowledge of their peers.

5. Parents need support too.
       o Most parents felt ill prepared to support their child’s learning, however, ALL parents
         expressed the need for this curriculum and resources so they could help their kids
         understand the material.
       o A guiding document/parent guide/support document that will allow visibility to a
         pathway of skills and curriculum.
       o Parents discussed ideas for support materials and resources
                  same language if ELL
                  lesson plans in advance that would help parents and therapist create
                  accommodations
                  Priming, front-loading of vocabulary
                  Visual supports
                  reinforcement materials to allow understanding
       o Parents experience regarding sex ed varies according to culture and exposure - yet
         all parents indicated they wanted their child to be supported and educated as a way
         to protect against abuse

6. The UNIQUE Curriculum is not being used for specified programs (LEAP and Autism)
       o Many parents expressed surprise that Unique Curriculum covered Human Growth
         and Health
       o Additional concern was raised about our most vulnerable kids being locked out of
         curriculum entirely.
                  If UNIQUE is NOT being used in SAI/LEAP/LRC/RSP - how are kids in these
                  classrooms being provided access to health and sexual health curriculum?
                  What is used for Social Emotional Specialized Program, Language and
                  Learning Specialized Programs?
       o If it is effective, why hasn’t it been used to support all students with IEPs and 504s?

7. Materials and instructional strategies need to be concrete and consider ALL learning
   styles. (UDL)
       o Parents expressed all the different ways their children learned and how they
         expressed their understanding, however it was universal for all parents that
         materials needed to be concrete rather than abstract.
                  visuals
                  social stories
                  specific examples including exact language
                  Tasks need to be broken down (e.g. it’s not effective to discuss the various
                  feminine hygiene products, some kids need it broken down step by step
                  with visual supports)
                  Priming, vocabulary, reading materials made accessible to learning profile
       o Parents shared the need for follow up and repetition so students can practice and
         generalize learning
       o Ideas of privacy needs to be built early (e.g. safe touch vs. not safe touch)
       o Social concepts such as love vs. like and the layers of intimacy need to be made
         concrete, some kids need more supports to understand social cues and the variety
         of peer relationships.
       o More opportunities to test knowledge and find the access point of learning
       o Materials need to be provided in primary language

8. There needs to be consistent and deeper connectivity to all aspects of the IEP.
       o As you can see from the previous slide, many of these suggestions are common
         supports included in students’ IEP.
       o Parents discussed the need to tie educational/curriculum pathway to IEP process –
         first they need to know the pathway

o A comprehensive curriculum would allow a more natural and consistent connection
         to goals, accommodations and modifications outlined in the IEPs and be discussed
         annually by all stakeholders

9. Curriculum needs to build capacity to informed consent to help students recognize and
   mitigate abuse.
       o Parents expressed the most concern when it came to the topic of consent because
         everyone associated it as the underlying cause for abuse of our kids.
       o Many parents referred to the “sobering statistics” and emphasized the need to start
         young with foundational ideas such as privacy, personal space, asking and waiting
         for ‘yes’ – not only as a skill that would protect their own child from abuse, but also
         to avoid situations where they may violate another person due to lack of
         understanding.
       o The moderator referred to a scene from Forrest Gump – as a way to frame the idea
         of informed consent – was Forrest able to provide consent? What are the building
         blocks to being able to provide and understand consent?
       o Many parents wanted their kids to understand the consequences, causality and
         responsibility related to sexual relationships because those are elements to
         informed consent.
       o In incidents of abuse, how does one report it, access justice system?
       o The idea of building to capacity aligns with the California Health Literacy Standards.
         https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SnZkhxBcG6bKDaH27eeCQ2eDIPV6klea/view

                                  In Conclusion
Being CHYA compliant will not be enough to provide access to students receiving special
education services across the grade spans K – Post Secondary
A comprehensive (K-Post Secondary) Human Growth and Sexual Health curriculum is needed
because:
1. It will allow a natural and much needed connection to the IEP process to
   support goal development, accommodations, modifications and provide access
   to the material.
2. Provide continuity of learning allowing time to prime, break down learning and
   follow up
3. It builds capacity to learning life-saving content like informed consent and abuse
   prevention

There are specific learnings to allow access to students who qualify for special
education, but all kids are ‘gen ed’ kids first, and our conclusions from the Listening
Sessions align with the California Health Education Framework which ultimately
reflects the needs of ALL kids to have a comprehensive sexual health curriculum.

       According to Dept of Justice, people with disabilities are 7x more like to be
       sexually abused than their typical peers.

Additional Resources Specific for students with disabilities – it’s a “one stop
shop” that has links to curricula and lesson plans, reviews, books/articles, and
resources for parents and guardians:
-   https://www.advocatesforyouth.org/resources/fact-sheets/sexual-health-
    education-for-young-people-with-disabilities/