Stop, drop and roll. Eat your fruits and vegetables. Say no to drugs.

The health and safety lessons taught to generations of schoolchildren have been increasingly phased out by tightened education budgets and federal testing requirements that favor core subjects like math and reading. At the same time, children and teens face record rates of diabetes, obesity, asthma and other chronic medical conditions.

One local hospital system hopes to improve children's health by paying for lessons and teacher training in more than 2,000 public and private schools in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.

The Sisters of Mercy Health System, which includes St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, bought $6 million in services from HealthTeacher, a Nashville, Tenn., company that sells education materials to school districts nationwide. Mercy then offered the curriculum to school districts in communities their hospitals serve.

Some strict observers of church-state separation say the religious-affiliated sponsorship is problematic. But school districts have been grateful to accept the materials, and none have turned them away, said Dr. Robert Bergamini of Mercy Children's Hospital in Creve Coeur.

"Communities told us they needed help ... to turn the tide of really declining health in children," Bergamini said. "Our goal is to provide as much accurate information as we can to students."

So far, more than two dozen districts in St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin counties have signed up for the Internet-based lessons in 10 subjects including nutrition, drugs and alcohol, mental health, physical activity, injury prevention and sexuality.

'BROUGHT TO YOU BY…'

While HealthTeacher independently developed the curriculum, Mercy officials will choose materials that agree with the hospital system's religious and ethical standards, Bergamini said. Individual school districts then decide how to use the materials based on their own guidelines.

Locally, the lesson plans will read "HealthTeacher is brought to you by Mercy Children's Hospital" across the top of the screen.

Public schools can accept donations from religious organizations, but the law prevents them from establishing an official religion.

"One could argue that health education in schools is of enormous value, but you don't want to run the risk that curricula offered is biased to promote a corporate or religious stance," said Karen Aroesty, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

One state lawmaker said she thinks the program is a creative way to boost an underfunded curriculum.

"If these were materials that did push a particular doctrinal viewpoint, then that would be a problem," said Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis. "There are some safeguards there. School districts can still choose to augment what's provided if they feel like there are some gaps."

'WE BATTLE MYTHOLOGY'

Missouri statutes require school districts to provide a sexual health curriculum that teaches abstinence as the only foolproof way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

But state law also requires that students be given information on the success rates of all forms of contraception and the potential physical and emotional risks of sexual activity.

"Birth control can be discussed within certain parameters," Bergamini said. "We're not ever going to say that birth control is something that can be adopted as a lifestyle without risk."

The HealthTeacher lessons will help combat misinformation students get from their peers or the Internet, Bergamini said.

In his talks at high schools, the doctor has heard students say Mountain Dew is an effective spermicide, marijuana smoke has no toxic chemicals and that anal sex is risk-free.

"We battle mythology or inaccurate information in every community," Bergamini said. "We have a generation that information exploded upon. The issue is to teach students how to assess risk and how to think about consequences before you jump in and try something."

Students are more likely to trust information they get in school compared with other sources, according to a recent study by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research group for reproductive health. The study found that students aren't confused by lessons that include both abstinence and contraception.

HealthTeacher's lessons on family and sexual health are abstinence-based, said Ed Fitzgerald, a vice president at the company, which has no religious affiliation. The company was started more than 10 years ago to create and market a health curriculum.

The content is based on education standards developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is used in about 8,000 schools worldwide.

More recently, third-party buyers have become more common, Fitzgerald said.

OTHER CORPORATE SPONSORS

About two dozen hospitals sponsor the program in their local schools. In Alabama, a TV news station is a co-sponsor. Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance provides funding in Florida.

Other districts, including public school systems in Chicago and New York, subscribe to the content directly at a cost of about $350 a school.

The curriculum includes worksheets, classroom activities and assessment tools. A fourth-grade lesson on nutrition, for example, has students line pieces of pipe with clay to demonstrate the effects of clogged arteries.

"We have teachers who write the content. We have a medical review board that reviews the content for medical accuracy and updates," Fitzgerald said. "We don't have a hidden agenda, and neither do our hospital partners."

Corporate sponsorships in public education began to raise eyebrows in the 1990s when soft drink companies and others paid for ads on school buses, hallways and scoreboards, as well as exclusive branding rights within those schools.

The National Parent Teacher Association took a stand against "commercial exploitation of students in school." But the economy has softened that line.

"If (districts) are seeking some sort of sponsorships, it's probably more of a reflection of the lack of education funding," said James Martinez, spokesman for the National PTA. "There may be some concern depending on what's being marketed to students."

Districts must become more selective to make sure sponsorships are educational, Martinez said.

MasterCard, which has an operations center in O'Fallon, Mo., funds the Singapore Math program in the Wentzville School District. Boeing trains teachers in science and engineering. Monsanto offers grants in the St. Louis area for math and science lessons.

School officials said they appreciate the directed donations that aren't simply advertising.

"More and more companies see there is value in supporting schools, and instead of just giving them money, tell them specifically what to spend the money on," said Travis Bracht, director of student learning in the Francis Howell School District, which signed on for the HealthTeacher program.

"The health literacy of our students doesn't seem to be a top priority of lawmakers," Bracht said. "Our teachers are always strapped for resources. (HealthTeacher) seemed to me like it was a very intrinsic, no-strings-attached way to try and help out schools and teachers and kids."