S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
8912
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
July 16, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring health
education regarding gambling
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Section 804 of the education law, as amended by chapter 390
of the laws of 2016 and subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 1 of the
laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
§ 804. Health education regarding mental health, alcohol, drugs,
tobacco abuse, GAMBLING and the prevention and detection of certain
cancers. 1. All schools shall ensure that their health education
programs recognize the multiple dimensions of health by including mental
health and the relation of physical and mental health so as to enhance
student understanding, attitudes and behaviors that promote health,
well-being and human dignity.
2. All schools shall include, as an integral part of health education,
instruction so as to discourage the misuse and abuse of alcohol,
tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs and promote attitudes and behavior
that enhance health, well being, and human dignity.
3. Instruction regarding alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs
shall be included in the health education provided for all elementary
school pupils and shall be taught by the regular classroom teachers or
by teachers certified to teach health education. Such instruction shall
be designed according to the needs and abilities of the pupils at
successive grade levels with the purpose of developing desirable health
behavior, attitudes, and knowledge as well as self-reliance and problem
solving capacity.
4. Instruction regarding alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs,
in addition to continued health guidance in the junior high school
grades and the senior high schools, shall be an integral part of a
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13398-01-5
A. 8912 2
required health education course at each of these levels in the second-
ary schools curriculum. Students shall be required to demonstrate know-
ledge in the subject area through the use of a test, graded project or
report, or any other means prescribed by the school authorities regard-
ing alcohol, drugs, GAMBLING and tobacco. Any such course shall be
taught by teachers holding a certificate to teach health. Related cours-
es in the secondary school curriculum shall be taught in a manner
supportive of health education regarding alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and
other drugs. In addition, instruction regarding the dangers of driving
while under the influence of alcohol or drugs shall be an integral part
of a required health education course in the senior high schools. Such
instruction shall be provided in all senior high schools whether or not
these schools also provide driver education courses.
5. Instruction regarding methods of prevention and detection of
certain cancers, including but not limited to breast cancer, skin
cancer, testicular cancer and other cancers where certain preventive
measures have become generally accepted and certain detection methods
have been adopted and recommended generally to the public. Such instruc-
tion shall be an integral part of a required health education course at
the senior high school level, in addition to continued health guidance
in senior high schools. Any such course shall be taught by teachers
holding a certificate to teach health.
6. a. The commissioner may prescribe in regulations such health educa-
tion courses which include instruction regarding alcohol, tobacco,
GAMBLING and other drugs as the commissioner may deem necessary and
desirable for the welfare of pupils and the community. The contents may
be varied to meet the needs of particular school districts, or portions
thereof, and need not be uniform throughout the state, provided, howev-
er, that school districts shall utilize either the curriculum for health
education instruction regarding alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and other
drugs prescribed by the commissioner or a course approved by the commis-
sioner in accordance with criteria established by the commissioner. The
commissioner is authorized to make recommendations to the board of
regents beginning December first, two thousand fourteen and every three
years thereafter relating to the modernization of such instruction
required pursuant to subdivision one of this section, to include the
most up to date age appropriate information available regarding the
misuse and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs, includ-
ing but not limited to heroin and opioids. Such instruction shall
include, but not be limited to, information regarding drugs and other
substances that are more prevalent among school aged youth. Such recom-
mendations shall be the result of a collaboration between the depart-
ment, the office of alcoholism and substance abuse services and the
department of health. If the board of regents adopts such curriculum,
the curriculum requirement shall take effect no later than the next
school year after such curriculum has been adopted.
b. The commissioner shall make available an interpersonal violence
prevention education package for grades kindergarten through twelve,
which package may consist of student pamphlets, parent pamphlets, vide-
otapes and other informative materials to be distributed to school
districts, and shall encourage the use of such material as part of the
health or other related curricula or programs.
c. The regents shall review the health curriculum requirements in
existence on the effective date of [this paragraph] CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
EIGHTY-ONE OF THE LAWS OF TWO THOUSAND for the purpose of streamlining
such curriculum and identifying any outdated components that may be
A. 8912 3
eliminated or consolidated in order to ensure that students have suffi-
cient time and instruction to develop skills to address issues of
violence prevention and mental health. To the extent appropriate, the
regents shall modify the existing curriculum to provide greater focus on
the development of skills, by no later than middle school, that are
needed to recognize, cope with and address potentially violent incidents
including an understanding of student roles in emergency situations and
other related skills designed to reduce the threat of violence in
schools.
7. School authorities shall provide the needed facilities, time, and
place for the instruction set forth herein and shall provide learning
aids and curriculum resource materials which contribute to effective
teaching methods and learning in health education regarding alcohol,
tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs.
8. All pre-service training programs in the state for elementary
teachers shall include adequate preparation regarding the instruction in
alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING and other drugs set forth herein, and no
teacher shall be licensed except upon satisfactory demonstration of the
competencies included in the institutional proposals approved by the
department.
9. Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to diminish or
impair the duties of the commissioner with respect to the continuing
program for critical health problems established by chapter seven
hundred eighty-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred sixty-seven as
amended. The commissioner shall coordinate actions taken under authority
of this section with the provisions of said chapter as they relate to
health education in schools, inservice training and training programs,
and curriculum or syllabus development regarding the deleterious effects
resulting from the use, misuse, and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, GAMBLING
and other drugs.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.