NYC Launches New HIV Curriculum For All Public School Students: Report

NEW YORK CITY, NY — New York City public schools has updated its HIV curriculum for students in grades K-12 for the first time since 2012, officials announced this week.

The update to the curriculum—called "Growing up and Staying Safe: New York City K-12 HIV Education Curriculum"—reflects advances in HIV prevention and treatment guidelines that have "changed substantially" in the past decade, Schools Chancellor David Banks said in a news release Monday.

"HIV and AIDS are among the most serious health problems Americans have ever faced," reads a curriculum letter to guardians designed to be distributed by school principals. "Advances in medicine now allow people with HIV to live long and healthy lives, but there is still no cure. Health education plays a critical role in helping students learn to make healthy choices and to protect themselves and others."

The "Growing Up and Staying Safe" curriculum was developed in partnership with national experts, local community leaders, parents and caregivers, and educators, and will fit into a student's health education, according to officials.

Lessons for elementary grades will include information on how to stay healthy and avoid illnesses as well as "develop self-worth and respect for their bodies" and communicate healthily with adults, officials said. For high school students, the subject matter progresses to characteristics of HIV and AIDS, prevention, and the disease's effects on different communities.

The new HIV curriculum is designed to "align with the state’s emphasis on health education that promotes health, well-being, and dignity," according to Banks. "It ensures that, each year, students will receive HIV education that is age-appropriate, medically accurate, inclusive, affirming, and representative of the students that make up our diverse school system."

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus that attacks the body's immune system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is spread through certain body fluids, including blood, sexual fluids, breast milk.

Without treatment, HIV progresses through three stages, according to the CDC. When the disease reaches stage three, the patient is diagnosed with AIDS.

In New York City, 37 percent of people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2021 were 13-29 years old, officials said.