Broward County public school officials say health classes, particularly those dealing with HIV/AIDS, are given less emphasis than lessons aimed at helping students pass the state's standardized tests.

"The state has put so much emphasis on testing, but academics can't stand alone," said William Sydnor, the district's HIV/AIDS coordinator. The county has one of the largest AIDS caseloads among US metropolitan areas, and the HIV infection rate for county teens has jumped 20 percent from 2005 to 2006.

To help youths prevent HIV, the district is developing a better curriculum to address nutrition, behavior, and HIV/AIDS, said officials. The more the district looked into health, "we began to look at the whole issue of behavioral health and kids making the right decisions whether in regards to sex, alcohol or drugs," said Robert Parks, the school board member who led efforts on the initiative.

As of July, 253 HIV-infected teens were living in Broward, one-third of the state's total cases among teens. And another 132 teens with AIDS live in the county. Among the teen cases, at least three-quarters acquired HIV through unsafe sex; 80 percent were females involved with males, state data show.

County youths are not being taught about human sexuality, oral sex or anal sex, said Ellen Feiler, health education director at the county Health Department. With more focus being given to passing the Comprehensive Assessment Test, sex education is "not getting done consistently," according to district documents.

By the second grade, students theoretically should learn basic HIV/AIDS information, such as that it cannot be caught through kissing or holding hands. By fifth grade, pupils should learn HIV is an STD and what abstinence is. In middle school, children are taught what condoms are. "But we don't demonstrate condoms. We don't show condoms. We don't make them available. We are abstinence-focused," said Sydnor.

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