CPS Institutes New Sexual Health Ed. Policy to Combat Increased STD/HIV Cases Amongst Teens

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The Chicago Board of Education announced expansion of its sexual health education policy to align with new *National Sexuality Education Standards that hopefully will address the alarming increase in sexually transmitted diseases amongst Chicago Public School (CPS) teens.

"From a public-health standpoint, it's an absolute imperative," said Dr. Bechara Choucair, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health in a press release statement. "It can no longer be limited to a few minutes over a few grade levels."

According to information compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2011, referred to as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 47 percent of U.S. High School students, engaged in sexual intercourse, 6 percent engaged for the first time before age 13 years, 40 percent did not use a condom during their last sexual encounter and 16 percent say they were never taught in high school about AIDS or the HIV infection.

Dr. Stephanie Whyte, chief health officer for CPS, speaking during a recent Chicago Public School Board meeting said teenagers made up more than a third of all Chicago gonorrhea and Chlamydia cases in 2011, and that HIV (human-immunodeficiency-virus) cases in the city have risen 43 percent amongst teens since 2000.

When asked what she attributes to the increase in HIV cases amongst teens, Dr. Whyte said, "I don't know if it's attributable to one factor."

As for how CPS and the Chicago Department of Health plan to address risky sexual behavior amongst teens, Whyte said sexual health education is about laying a good foundation for the upper grades and focuses on prevention and self-esteem among other things.

The *National Sexuality Education Standards are intended to set the groundwork for the minimum of what sexual health education should look like in public schools and addresses the inconsistent implementation of sexual health education nationwide and the limited time allocated to teaching the topic.

According to the School Health Policies and Practices Study, a national survey conducted by the CDC and Prevention's Division of Adolescent School Health, a median total of 17.2 hours is devoted to instruction in HIV, pregnancy, and STD prevention, 3.1 hours in elementary, 6 hours in middle, and 8.1 hours in high school.

"It is important that we provide students of all ages with accurate and appropriate information so they can make healthy choices in regards to their social interactions, behaviors, and relationships," CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a released statement. "By implementing a new sexual health education policy, we will be helping them to build a foundation of knowledge that can guide them not just in the pre-adolescent and adolescent years, but throughout their lives."

The new policy breaks down instruction to conform to specific age groups.

For K-4 students, instruction will center on anatomy and physiology, reproduction, healthy relationships and personal safety such as appropriate and inappropriate touching while students in fourth grade will learn about puberty, including the physical, social and emotional changes that accompany it, and the causes and transmission of HIV infection.

For students in grades 5-12, instruction will include information appropriate for each grade level on human reproduction, transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), healthy decision-making, sexual orientation and bullying, and contraception, including abstinence.

Parents and guardians of CPS students may opt out of having their children participate in the sexual health education instruction.

*The goal of the National Sexuality Education Standards, a guide which was produced by The Future of Sex Education (FoSE) Initiative, a partnership between Advocates for Youth, Answer and he Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), is to provide clear, consistent and straightforward guidance on the essential minimum, core content for sexuality education that is developmentally and age-appropriate for students in grades K-12. To learn more, please visit

www.futureofsexed.org.

By Deborah Bayliss

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