This school year, students in all grades are learning from updated health lessons that help them build healthy habits for body and mind. Below is an overview of what is being taught in elementary and secondary classrooms.
Elementary Health (Grades K-5)
All elementary schools are using QuaverHealth, the curriculum adopted by the Highline School Board in spring 2024. Some schools voluntarily started teaching with it in the 2024-25 school year to get familiar with the new lessons before full use this year.
QuaverHealth supports the Washington State Health Learning Standards and includes age-appropriate lessons on:
- Nutrition
- Social emotional health
- Safety
- Wellness
- Substance use and abuse
Materials are available online in both English and Spanish.
Secondary Health (Grades 6-12)
In spring 2025, the Highline School Board approved Goodheart-Wilcox as our new secondary health curriculum for middle and high schools.
This updated curriculum ensures students receive consistent, standards-aligned instruction that promotes:
- Healthy decision-making
- Wellness skills that last a lifetime
At the middle school level, health is now taught as part of physical education. Students will spend four to six weeks focused on health instruction and 12 to 14 weeks in physical education activities each semester.
To support a strong start, all middle school PE/Health teachers and high school health teachers participated in a full-day training session in August.
About Comprehensive Sexual Health Education
Please note that comprehensive sexual health is not covered in this curriculum.
Highline teaches comprehensive sexual health education in alignment with state law and district policy. FLASH is our board-adopted curriculum that meets state requirements for sexual health education, which is taught in grades 4-12. Families may opt out of any or all sexual health lessons.
About the Adoption Process
Both QuaverHealth and Goodheart-Wilcox were selected through Highline’s curriculum adoption process, which includes review by a committee of teachers and content specialists, as well as opportunities for family and community input.