Health Education

Health education is a required academic subject that teaches students how to take care of their minds, their bodies, and their relationships with others. Health education is required for students every year, in grades K-12. In health class, students learn the concepts and skills they need to be healthy for life, including:

• Social and emotional skills
• How to set goals for life and health
• How to find and use health services
• Good communication and relationship skills
• How to set boundaries and resist negative social pressure

These skills are especially important during times when families and students are managing illness or other challenging situations.

As part of the City and the DOE’s focus on the social and emotional well-being of all our students during the reopening of schools, the Bridge to School plan is designed to help schools create a safe, supportive learning environment centered around addressing the trauma caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While your child is at home, you can support their physical, mental, social, and emotional development with the following free resources.

All Grade Levels

• KidsHealth from Nemours: A comprehensive health education website, with all articles by doctors or other health professionals. All resources are available in Spanish and English and have audio files.
• 20 Seconds or More, produced by Hip Hop Public Health: A hand-washing video featuring legendary rapper Doug E. Fresh and prominent music artists, public health experts, athletes, entertainers and families. Listen along and learn how to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
• Common Sense Media Parent Concerns 
• School Mental Health Resource Training Center 
• Action for Healthy Kids: Healthy Activities to Do at Home
• Laurie M. Tisch Center's Food Ed Hub: A compilation of free, family friendly food and nutrition education lesson plans, videos, recipes, and activities developed by partner organizations.
• K-12 health and safety lessons
• Wear a Mask to Protect You and Your Friends - For Young Adults, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Handwashing, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• COVID-19 Parental Resource Kit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: helps support parents, caregivers, and other adults in identifying children and young people’s social, emotional, and mental health challenges and helping to ensure their well-being.

Early Childhood

Videos 

• Learn Feelings and Emotions for Kids
• Sesame Street Name that Emotion
• When I am feeling angry/Feeling & Emotion Management by Baby A Nursery  
• Tuesdays with Twomey: Moro Reflex & Self-Regulation Calming Techniques 
• Please and Thank You 
  • Feelings Circle: An SEL Kernels Practice for Kindergarten

 Articles 

• How to Teach Kids about Their Feelings: Early Childhood 
• How to Talk to Your Kids About Coronavirus: Early Childhood 

Apps/Resources 

• At-Home SEL Strategies: Early Childhood
• Parent Toolkit: Social and Emotional Development (also available in Spanish)

Grades K-5

Videos 

• Controlling emotions for kids 

Activities

• Make a Mood Meter: Children learn how to make their own mood meter to check in with how they are feeling and recognize when they are upset and others are upset.

Middle School

• BrainPOP: An educational website with health-related short videos, engaging learning activities, and online games.
• Social Emotional Family Toolkit (Move This World) : Students can use the journal prompts and writing activities on pages 24-27; caregivers can access other at-home tools and information. 
• Learning About Decision-Making: Information about the effects of our choices and decisions, with questions to help students think about their own decision-making.

High School or Teens

• Love is Respect: Helps young people learn about healthy relationships and how to prevent and end abusive relationships. The Relationships 101 section includes information for teens on dating, trust, consent, and conflict resolution. Site includes hotlines to text or call in a crisis. 
• The Trevor Project: A national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. Resources include a guide to being an ally to transgender and non-binary youth. 
• Let’s Talk: Your Health (Peer Health Exchange): Peer Health Exchange has created a library of health resources, including videos by peer health educators, to help teens take care of themselves during this time. Topics cover managing relationships as well as stress and anxiety during a pandemic, among other topics important to teens.
• NYC Healthy Relationship Training Academy: The Academy, a part of the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, works with NYC students, staff, and parents and works with communities in all five boroughs to offer engaging workshops on teen dating violence, healthy relationships, and consent.
  • Check out the Academy’s introductory videos or schedule a live, virtual workshop or training today.
• Teens and Abuse During the Coronavirus Crisis: The Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence and the Mayor’s Office of ThriveNYC created a COVID-19 resource guide for teens. Check out resources and suggestions for what to do if you are in a home with someone who is causing you harm or if you are experiencing abuse online.