public health

Period Education: DC Students to Get New Lessons on Menstrual Cycle

D.C.’s new Menstrual Health Education Standards are the first of their kind in the country, the mayor’s office said. One goal is to give students basic information before they start their periods at about age 11, according to the national average

Aunt Flo, that time of the month, Shark Week — whatever you call it, periods are a fact of life for about half the population.

D.C. schools will teach students about the menstrual cycle under new health education standards starting this fall, the mayor’s office announced Thursday, calling the standards on period education the first of their kind in the country.

The goal is to equip young people with the basic knowledge they need, said Dr. Christina Grant, D.C.’s state superintendent of education.

"We want to make sure, as students are going through this process — which is very normal and a part of life — that a) we're providing free resources to them, and b) that we're creating a community where we're educating all of our learners about this process of adolescence, and transitioning them into adulthood."

The new Menstrual Health Education Standards will be used in all D.C. public schools and public charter schools in the new school year, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) said. The standards make D.C. the first-ever jurisdiction to create "specific, statewide menstrual health education standards," according to a statement by Mayor Muriel Bowser's office.

Information on periods is often part of reproductive health lessons, but D.C. wanted to "deepen our health standards," Grant said. Students will learn about the menstrual cycle in an age-appropriate way, regardless of gender, under the new guidelines.

"Multiple people across the gender continuum menstruate, and so we want to be mindful of that process and that learning for individuals who do menstruate. But we also think it's important for those that don't," Grant said.

If kids of all genders know how periods work and how they affect the people who get them, school officials hope the lessons will build empathy.

"It also will ensure compassion," Grant said. "It will take away some of the stigma."

To make sure that educators can catch kids before Mother Nature does, the new standards are tailored to each grade, starting with the basics in third grade and advancing in depth through 12th grade.

"Introducing the standards in elementary school really does support research and statistics that show that for some students, the first onset of a menstrual period begins on average around 11.9 years of age, somewhere between elementary school and middle school," Grant said.

That research comes in part from a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, which found that the most common age that young people get their first period decreased from 12.1 in the 1990s to 11.9 in the 2010s.

Those who don't get education and support, especially when they get their first period at a young age, "are more likely to experience depression and low self-esteem," sociomedical sciences professor Marni Sommer wrote.

D.C. education officials hope that by teaching kids about periods in third grade, when they are 8 or 9 years old, they can be prepared, not afraid, when their periods come.

Here's What DC Students Will Be Taught About Periods, by Grade Level

  • Third to Fifth Grade: Kids in later elementary school, from third to fifth grade, will learn what the menstrual cycle is and what kinds of physical and emotional changes happen to someone during their period. According to Grant, it's very much introductory, "let's make sure we're naming things correctly" -level information.
  • Sixth to Eighth Grade: In junior high, sixth through eighth graders will learn more about the menstrual cycle and how to make personal decisions around periods. They will learn about the stigma surrounding periods to identify and analyze that influence on their own lives. The information about periods will match other health standards and add information to explain, "How do you make sense of hormones and puberty and how is that all interplaying in this process of menstruation?" Grant said.
  • Ninth to 12th Grade: In high school, ninth through twelfth graders will learn about irregularities that can affect periods and menstrual health, more about personal decisions to manage period health, how period stigma affects community health and inequities that affect access to menstrual products. At that high school level, "students receive more in-depth reproductive and sexual health awareness," Grant said.

Grant encouraged parents to read the standards at each grade level and to talk to principals and others at D.C. schools to understand what will be taught. For parents who prefer to handle conversations around periods at home, there are opt-out processes.

The standards are part of requirements outlined in the Expanding Student Access to Period Products Act of 2022, which went into effect last March.

Outside of the additions to the DCPS curriculum, the law requires schools to install dispensers for free period products in women's and gender-neutral bathrooms, according to an OSSE webpage.

Thursday was about two months after the the State Board of Education approved OSSE's new standards, and just a few days before Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, a worldwide day dedicated to raising awareness of good health practices around periods.

D.C. education officials presented the draft standards to the State Board of Education to ensure each grade level's standards were age-appropriate, and the draft was released for public comment.

To celebrate the upcoming lessons on periods and the installation of new product dispensers, the OSSE will host the first DC Menstrual Health Education Day on Tuesday, May 30. The event with workshops will include high school students who did projects on period education.

"On the 30th, we really will be celebrating the day," Grant said.

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