Specifications include, but are not limited to: The general scope of work shall consist of providing comprehensive elementary and middle school health education curricula aligned to the National Health Standards. Proposals must be submitted for one or more entire grade bands: elementary (K-5) and/or middle school (6-8). Proposed health education programs must provide teachers with instructional materials that are research-based, medically accurate, culturally-relevant, inclusive by design, fully accessible to all learners, aligned to the National Health Education Standards (NHES), and consistent with the characteristics of effective health education as evaluated by the Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT): • Meets CDC’s Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum o Focuses on clear health goals and related behavioral outcomes. o Is research-based and theory-driven. o Addresses individual values, attitudes, and beliefs. o Addresses individual and group norms that support health-enhancing behaviors. o Focuses on reinforcing protective factors and increasing perceptions of personal risk and harmfulness of engaging in specific unhealthy practices and behaviors. o Addresses social pressures and influences. o Builds personal competence, social competence, and self-efficacy by addressing skills. o Provides functional health knowledge that is basic, accurate, and directly contributes to health-promoting decisions and behaviors. o Uses strategies to personalize information and engage students. o Provides age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate information, learning strategies, teaching methods, and materials. o Incorporates learning strategies, teaching methods, and materials that are culturally inclusive. o Provides adequate time for instruction and learning. o Provides opportunities to reinforce skills and positive health behaviors. o Provides opportunities to make positive connections with influential others. o Includes teacher information and plans for professional development and training that enhance effectiveness of instruction and student learning. • Aligned to the National Health Education Standards (NHES): o The program must cover the following topics (standard 1): mental and emotional health, substance abuse prevention, family life and human sexuality, safety and violence prevention, healthy eating, and disease prevention and control. o A completed HECAT analysis tool must be provided to show the characteristics of the curriculum as well as which topics (standard 1) and skills (standards 2-8) are covered in each unit.