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Educational standards.
2. The kindergarten program shall include experiences designed to develop healthy emotional and social habits and growth in the language arts and communication skills, as well as a capacity for the completion of individual tasks, and protect and increase physical well-being with attention given to experiences relating to the development of life skills and human growth and development. A kindergarten teacher shall be licensed to teach in kindergarten. An accredited nonpublic school must meet the requirements of this subsection only if the nonpublic school offers a kindergarten program.
3. The following areas shall be taught in grades one through six: English-language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, health, age-appropriate and research-based human growth and development, physical education, traffic safety, music, and visual art. Computer science instruction incorporating the standards established under section 256.7, subsection 26, paragraph “a”, subparagraph (4), shall be offered in at least one grade level commencing with the school year beginning July 1, 2023. The health curriculum shall include the characteristics of communicable diseases including acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The state board as part of accreditation standards shall adopt curriculum definitions for implementing the elementary program.
4. The following shall be taught in grades seven and eight: English-language arts; social studies; mathematics; science; health; age-appropriate and research-based human growth and development; career exploration and development; physical education; music; and visual art. Computer science instruction incorporating the standards established under section 256.7, subsection 26, paragraph “a”, subparagraph (4), shall be offered in at least one grade level commencing with the school year beginning July 1, 2023. Career exploration and development shall be designed so that students are appropriately prepared to create an individual career and academic plan pursuant to section 279.61, incorporate foundational career and technical education concepts aligned with the six career and technical education service areas as defined in subsection 5, paragraph “h”, and incorporate relevant twenty-first century skills. The health curriculum shall include age-appropriate and research-based information regarding the characteristics of sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV and the availability of a vaccine to prevent HPV, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The state board as part of accreditation standards shall adopt curriculum definitions for implementing the program in grades seven and eight. However, this subsection shall not apply to the teaching of career exploration and development in nonpublic schools. For purposes of this section,“age-appropriate”,“HPV”, and “research-based” mean the same as defined in section 279.50.
5. In grades nine through twelve, a unit of credit consists of a course or equivalent related components or partial units taught throughout the academic year. The minimum program to be offered and taught for grades nine through twelve is:
- a. Five units of science including physics and chemistry; the units of physics and chemistry may be taught in alternate years.
- b. Five units of the social studies including instruction in voting statutes and procedures, voter registration requirements, the use of paper ballots and voting systems in the election process, and the method of acquiring and casting an absentee ballot. All students shall complete a minimum of one-half unit of United States government and one unit of United States history. The one-half unit of United States government shall include the voting procedure as described in this lettered paragraph and section 280.9A. The government instruction shall also include a study of the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution and an assessment of a student’s knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
- c. Six units of English-language arts.
- d. Four units of a sequential program in mathematics.
- e. Two additional units of mathematics.
- f. Four sequential units of one world language which may include American sign language. The department may waive the third and fourth years of the world language requirement on an annual basis upon the request of the board of directors of a school district or the authorities in charge of a nonpublic school if the board or authorities are able to prove that a licensed teacher was employed and assigned a schedule that would have allowed students to enroll in a world language class, the world language class was properly scheduled, students were aware that a world language class was scheduled, and no students enrolled in the class.
- g. (1) All students physically able shall be required to participate in physical education activities during each semester they are enrolled in school except as otherwise provided in this paragraph. A minimum of one-eighth unit each semester is required. A twelfth grade student who meets the requirements of this paragraph may be excused from the physical education requirement by the principal of the school in which the student is enrolled if the parent or guardian of the student requests in writing that the student be excused from the physical education requirement. A student who wishes to be excused from the physical education requirement must be seeking to be excused in order to enroll in academic courses not otherwise available to the student, or be enrolled or participating in one of the following:
- (a) A work-based learning program or other educational program authorized by the school which requires the student to leave the school premises for specified periods of time during the school day.
- (b) An organized and supervised athletic program which requires at least as much participation per week as one-eighth unit of physical education.
- (2) Students in grades nine through eleven may be excused from the physical education requirement in order to enroll in academic courses not otherwise available to the student if the board of directors of the school district in which the school is located, or the authorities in charge of the school, if the school is a nonpublic school, determine that students from the school may be permitted to be excused from the physical education requirement. A student may be excused by the principal of the school in which the student is enrolled, in consultation with the student’s counselor, for up to one semester, trimester, or the equivalent of a semester or trimester, per year if the parent or guardian of the student requests in writing that the student be excused from the physical education requirement. The student seeking to be excused from the physical education requirement must, at some time during the period for which the excuse is sought, be a participant in an organized and supervised athletic program which requires at least as much time of participation per week as one-eighth unit of physical education.
- (3) The principal of the school shall inform the superintendent of the school district or nonpublic school that the student has been excused. Physical education activities shall emphasize leisure time activities which will benefit the student outside the school environment and after graduation from high school.
- (4) A student who is enrolled in a junior reserve officers’ training corps shall not be required to participate in physical education activities under subparagraph (1) or to meet the physical activity requirements of subsection 6, paragraph “b”, subparagraph (2), but shall receive one-eighth unit of physical education credit for each semester, or the equivalent, of junior reserve officers’ training corps the student completes.
- h. (1) A minimum of three sequential units in at least four of the following six career and technical education service areas:
- (a) Agriculture, food, and natural resources.
- (b) Arts, communications, and information systems.
- (c)Applied sciences, technology, engineering, and manufacturing, including transportation, distribution, logistics, architecture, and construction.
- (d) Health sciences.
- (e) Human services, including law, public safety, corrections, security, government, public administration, and education and training.
- (f) Business, finance, marketing, and management.[2]
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