Education Week - July 13, 2022 - 24

20
Returning to 'Normal'
Will Not Be Enough
This Fall
21
The Cognitive Toll
Of Gun Violence
22
Letters to
The Editor
How Educators Can Respond to Dobbs
As abortion rights are rolled back, sex ed. that includes info on contraception is a must
By Terrinieka W. Powell,
Beth Marshall & McKane Sharff
I
t's time for educators to double
down on prevention efforts.
With the U.S. Supreme Court's
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health
Organization decision overturning
the right to an abortion that
was guaranteed by Roe v. Wade,
accessing an abortion may become near
impossible for many students. Preventing
unintended pregnancies and thus the need
for abortions is the best way to help students
in this post-Roe era.
As adolescent-health researchers and
parents, we believe schools have a major role
to play.
Schools have played a vital role in the
decline of teen pregnancies, births, and
abortions over the past 30 years by increasing
the availability of comprehensive sexualhealth
education and providing greater
access and links to contraceptive services.
During this time, the number and percentage
of school-based health centers providing
contraceptives on-site rose; the decision to
include those services is most often made at
the school or district level.
Schools are the most common and
most regulated source of formal sexualhealth
education for youth. Students need
sexual-health education that is medically
accurate and age-appropriate. Importantly,
comprehensive sexual-health education
includes both the benefits of delaying sexual
intercourse and provides information
about reproductive development and
contraception. This is the gold standard
for sexual-health education. Students have
options, and they should know about them.
For decades, child-development experts
have recommended that sexual-health
education start in elementary schools as part
of comprehensive K-12 health education
taught by trained health educators. While
the instructional focus differs depending
on the age of the students, concepts such
as healthy friendships, self-image, and
personal boundaries should be discussed
with students as early as kindergarten.
Age-appropriate skill-building elements,
such as decisionmaking and accessing
reliable information, should be incorporated
throughout.
These topics and skills are the building
blocks for teens to understand and practice
giving and seeking consent, pregnancy and
sexually-transmitted-disease prevention, and
healthy romantic relationships.
The evidence is clear that content
matters. When armed with comprehensive
education-which includes information
about contraception and not just abstinence-
students make sexual-health decisions that
protect themselves from negative outcomes.
One study showed states with mandated,
comprehensive sexual-health education
have lower rates of sexually active youth and
higher rates of contraception use when youth
are sexually active compared with states that
health education in schools often shape
policies and practices around what actually
gets taught. Provide your students with
access and information.
Finding the best sexual-health-education
programs can feel daunting, but it doesn't
have to be. The Office of Population Affairs
Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, run by
the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, currently funds comprehensive
sexuality education in 29 states. The
program has identified more than two dozen
evidence-based comprehensive sexualhealth-education
curricula and served over
1.4 million youth since its inception in 2010.
If your state isn't currently funded or
sexual-health education and contraceptive
access are uphill battles where you live and
work, there are other ways to support your
students in this post-Roe time.
If you are a school leader or teacher, you
can direct students to resources outside of
school. Nationwide organizations such as
Amaze, Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, and Advocates for Youth offer
reduced-cost reproductive-health services for
youth, open access curricula, fact sheets, and
videos.
Local and state health departments also
often have free online resources available
for youth to use for sexual-health decisionmaking.
For example, the Baltimore's
health department hosts the UChoose
program, which disseminates information
around contraceptive options, relationships,
reproductive-health service locations, and
parenting as a teen.
You can also answer students' questions
Finding the best sexual-healtheducation
programs can feel
daunting, but it doesn't
have to be.
mandated abstinence-only sexual-health
education.
In addition to providing sexual-health
education, schools have also aided in
expanding students' access to and use of
contraceptives through school-based health
centers and community partnerships. Having
school-based health centers reduces the
barriers related to stigma, confidentiality,
transportation, cost, and scheduling
many students face when trying to find
reproductive-health services. In the absence
of on-site services, school staff can connect
students to youth-friendly reproductivehealth
services in their communities.
Here's the challenge: Thirty-three states
mandate sexual-health education in schools,
but only 13 of them require the classroom
discussion of contraception, and only 12
require that the instructional content be
medically accurate. Furthermore, because
24 | EDUCATION WEEK | July 13, 2022 | www.edweek.org/opinion
of district-related policy barriers, less than
half of adolescent-serving school-based
health centers provide contraceptives on-site,
according to recent data. Thus, restrictive
policies, not parents, as often supposed,
seem to be a significant hurdle. (Note: Most
parents, regardless of political affiliation,
support comprehensive sexual-health
education in schools.)
We have work to do.
Educators can prevent unintended teen
pregnancies, decrease the need for abortions,
and improve health for the young people they
work with.
District leaders, first and foremost,
can allow school-based health centers
to provide contraceptives, mandate K-12
health education, and make comprehensive
sexual-health programs the only option for
their schools. Despite state mandates and
requirements, local norms about sexualabout
sexual-health. Keep an anonymous box
for students to submit questions that they
may be unable or afraid to ask in an open
setting. It's OK if you don't always know what
to say; you can ask others for guidance. The
same national organizations mentioned
above, along with colleges and universities,
have experts that can help you provide
thoughtful and accurate responses to student
questions.
Ultimately, ensuring access to
contraceptives and offering comprehensive
sexual-health education are among the
strongest strategies to prevent unintended
teen pregnancies and the need for abortions.
Now, more than ever, youth will need these
preventive tools. The full impact of the Dobbs
decision remains to be seen, but through
advocacy and partnerships, educators can
make a powerful difference in the health of
our young people right now.
The authors are affiliated with the Johns
Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health in
the Department of Population, Family and
Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.
POWELL is an associate professor and vice
chair for Inclusion, diversity, anti-racism,
and equity. MARSHALL is an assistant
scientist and the associate director of the
Center for Adolescent Health. SHARFF is a
doctoral student.
F. Sheehan/Education Week and iStock/Getty
http://www.edweek.org/opinion
Education Week - July 13, 2022

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