MSDE previews draft revisions to Maryland health and physical education standards

Maryland State Department of Education staff presented draft revisions to the state's comprehensive health and physical education standards to the State Board of Education's Education Policy Committee, saying the changes emphasize skills-based instruction, equity, and clearer assessment expectations.

"Modern health education programs are comprehensive, skills based, and responsive to data about Maryland youth," Jason Semenoff, director of comprehensive health and PE for MSDE, told the committee at the meeting. He said the revisions reflect decades of change in practice and a move away from "scaring students" toward providing safe spaces where students learn health skills to make informed lifelong decisions.

MSDE described two parallel standards-and-framework validation committees (one for health and one for physical education) that included parents, teachers, Maryland Department of Health staff, university partners and national award-winning educators. The committees reviewed national guidance and Maryland laws that MSDE said are "interwoven" into the draft frameworks, including requirements ranging from hands-only CPR and diabetes education to oral-health and sexual-violence-prevention instruction. Semenoff also cited the Gwen Britt Physical Fitness Act and Maryland's fitness-and-athletic-equity law as regulatory context informing the recommendations.

For health education, MSDE proposes clarifying what it calls "direct teaching" for sensitive topics (noting puberty units typically begin in fourth grade) and adding language to ensure curricula are age-appropriate, scientifically based, medically accurate and data driven. For physical education, the draft would reduce the number of standards used in Maryland from the historical six (and the current five) to four national-aligned standards that integrate fitness and movement across cognitive, affective, social and psychomotor domains. Semenoff said the change is intended to make physical education more "meaningful for all students" and to align assessments to what students should know and do.

Semenoff told committee members that the frameworks are intended primarily for LEA curriculum writers (to guide local curriculum development) and not as direct classroom materials. He said MSDE will provide technical assistance, supplemental guidance documents, sample lesson plans and sample assessments aligned to high-quality instructional materials.

During questions, Dr. Irma Johnson asked how adaptive physical education would be addressed. "Adaptive physical education is a direct service for our LEAs," Semenoff replied, and he said MSDE did not propose changes to adaptive-PE regulation; LEAs would continue to use current assessments and IEP/504 processes to determine modifications and accommodations. Semenoff also outlined next steps: MSDE will return to the committee, seek permission to publish the draft for public comment, revise the materials based on feedback, and later request permission to adopt the final regulations and frameworks.

MSDE officials said they would provide further detail and return to the Education Policy Committee next month to collect additional questions and seek permission to move the drafts into the public-comment phase.