Departamento de Educación del Estado de Hawái

Ka ʻOihana Hoʻonaʻauao o ke Aupuni Hawaiʻi

Nutrition, Health & Wellness

Health education supports students’ health, resilience, total well-being and academic success so they may reach their aspirations, from early learning through college, career and citizenship. 

Providing students with a high-quality, comprehensive health education equips and empowers them with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to address their current and future health needs and challenges. Health literacy is essential to students’ social, emotional, mental, physical, and cognitive development.

Health literate individuals are able to find, understand and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. This contributes to resilience, well-being, healthy relationships and a positive quality of life as well as prevents and reduces the risk of disease, injury and death.

La educación sanitaria actual refleja el creciente cuerpo de investigación que enfatiza:

  • Apoyar la salud, la resiliencia y el bienestar total de todo el niño (por ejemplo, el desarrollo social, emocional, mental, físico y cognitivo de los estudiantes).
  • Desarrollar habilidades de alfabetización en salud alineadas con los Estándares Nacionales de Educación en Salud.
  • Construir conocimiento funcional con información relevante y funcional alineada a los Temas Prioritarios de Riesgo.
  • Fortaleciendo conexiones con la familia y la comunidad.
  • Abordar las necesidades e intereses de los estudiantes a través de experiencias de aprendizaje interactivas y sociales.
  • Fomentar actitudes, valores y creencias que respalden conductas de salud positivas a través de mensajes y entornos de aprendizaje seguros, inclusivos y solidarios.

El National Health Education Standards: Achieving Excellence (NHES) are fused on developing students’ health literacy skills to proficiency within and across grade levels:

  • Estándar 1: Comprensión de conceptos – Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health. 
  • Estándar 2: Análisis de influencias – Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology and other factors on health behavior.
  • Norma 3: Acceso a información, productos y servicios – Students will demonstrate the ability to access valid information, products and services.
  • Estándar 4: Comunicación interpersonal – Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • Norma 5: Toma de decisiones – Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
  • Norma 6: Establecimiento de metas – Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health.
  • Norma 7: Autogestión – Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • Norma 8: Defensa de derechos – Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family and community health.

While the primary focus of Health Education is the development of health skills, these skills must be addressed in conjunction with functional information in the context of priority risk topics. Standards-based health education must be age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate and provide factual information in all priority risk topics:

  • Mental and Emotional Health.
  • Healthy Eating and Physical Activity.
  • Personal Health and Wellness.
  • Safety (Unintentional Injury Prevention).
  • Violence Prevention.
  • Tobacco Use Prevention.
  • Alcohol and Other Drug Use Prevention.
  • Sexual Health and Responsibility.

Note: Health Education in prekindergarten is aligned to the Hawai‘i Early Learning and Development Standards (HELDS).

Course Requirements for Health Education

La educación para la salud es obligatoria en todos los grados primarios.

Middle/intermediate schools must offer courses that allow all students to meet Hawaiʻi՚s Health Education standards and performance indicators for Grades 6-8. One semester (0.5 credits; 60 hours) of Health Education in each middle/intermediate school grade is strongly recommended but not required.

In high school, a one-semester course (0.5 credits; 60 hours) in Health Education is required for graduation. 

A variety of Health specialized elective courses (e.g., Peer Education) are available at the secondary school level.

Para conocer los requisitos de promoción de la escuela intermedia y graduación de la escuela secundaria, consulte Board Policy 105-1 Academic Program, Board Policy 102-9 Middle Level Education Promotion Policy, y Board Policy 102-15 High School Graduation Requirements and Commencement.

Wellness Guidelines for Health Education and Nutrition Promotion

Health education and nutrition promotion provide the instructional foundation that is necessary to prepare students to make lifelong healthy decisions and practice healthy behaviors. This component area of the Wellness Guidelines includes school-wide promotion of nutritious meals and snacks as well as quality health education. Click for more information about our Pautas de bienestar.

Guidelines for health education and nutrition promotion are organized around four key components:

  1. El contenido instructivo de las clases de educación para la salud incluye un enfoque en el conocimiento y las habilidades que apoyan una alimentación saludable y está alineado con los estándares HIDOE para educación para la salud.
  2. Se proporciona educación para la salud a los estudiantes de los grados primarios al menos 45 minutos por semana y a los grados secundarios al menos 200 minutos por semana.
  3. Nutrition education includes culturally relevant activities that are ‘āina-based and hands-on, such as food preparation, taste-testing, farm visits and school gardens.
  4. Toda la comercialización de alimentos y bebidas en las escuelas debe cumplir con los siguientes requisitos: Nutrition GuidelinesEsto incluye, entre otras cosas, publicaciones escolares, el exterior de las máquinas expendedoras, carteles, pancartas, televisores escolares y marcadores.

Formas en que las escuelas promueven una buena nutrición

  • En el campus se muestran mensajes positivos sobre alimentos nutritivos.
  • Las máquinas expendedoras para estudiantes están abastecidas únicamente con agua.
  • Las comidas escolares se preparan desde cero siempre que sea posible, incluyendo productos de pan integral recién horneado.
  • Ningún alimento contiene grasas trans.
  • El agua potable está disponible de forma gratuita para los estudiantes durante los horarios de comida.
  • Se invita a las clases a visitar la cocina de la cafetería para aprender a preparar alimentos saludables.
  • Se promueven desayunos, almuerzos y meriendas saludables entre los estudiantes y sus familias.
  • Los huertos instructivos demuestran cómo se cultivan los alimentos.

Want To Learn More About Health Education?

Additional information may be found in the following resources:

Información del contacto

Programa de Educación para la Salud

Phone: (808) 784-6423

Correo electrónico: [email protected] 

Recursos