The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) find that most major health problems in the United States today are caused by six categories of behavior. Comprehensive school health education programs represent one effective way of providing students with the knowledge and skills to prevent health-impairing impairing behaviors. The purpose of this Digest is to assist schools in developing and evaluating comprehensive health education and to lay a framework for local school boards to use in determining the content of health curricula in their communities. This digest provides a discussion of: (1) research on the ability of health instruction to change children's health status; (2) broad standards that promote health literacy developed by the Joint Committee for National School Health Education Standards (1995), emphasizing the capacity of individuals to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services in ways which enhance health; (3) health curriculum content; (4) teaching practices that develop health knowledge, attitudes, and skills; and (5) implications for teacher education. Sources of additional information on health curricula are included. (Contains 11 references.) (LL)