Student safety is an important goal when teaching physically active skills, and school safety standards should be considered as important as the dance content standards for students. More than being complementary, safety standards and content standards are functionally related, because "consistently enforcing safe practices within the framework of school and district policies facilitates effective teaching and learning of course content". A recent survey, however, identified many health and safety concerns in dance education, including inadequate facilities and other deficiencies. The recent emphasis on quality arts education in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) makes this an opportune time to reexamine, and urge implementation of, the environmental health and safety standards for dance education and dance in physical education. These standards were developed by the National Dance Association and published, under the title "Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Dance Instruction," as part of Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Arts Education (Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, 1995). They were subsequently combined with the dance content standards (National Dance Association, 1996), the form in which they are currently available. This article describes the five recommended environmental health and safety standards.