chool officials need to be informed of evidence-based education programs and how to implement the curricula in schools.
| Parents | School Officials | Students | Communities |
C.H.A.R.T. — The Creating Healthy and Responsible Teens (CHART) Initiative was created by Mississippi First in conjunction with the Mississippi State Department of Health to reduce teen pregnancy, improve teen sexual health and increase responsible decision-making. The CHART Initiative is two-fold: 1) the development of policy tools, enabling school districts to provide comprehensive, or "abstinence-plus," sex education programs which are evidence-based, age-appropriate, and medically accurate; and 2) local school district adoption of the CHART Initiative, beginning with the CHART Model Policy.
PREP — The PREP Program will allow districts choosing to implement CHART to do so at no cost. PREP will pay for districts to receive curricula, train relevant staff, and receive on-going technical assistance from the Mississippi State Department of Health's Bureau of Community and School Health.
How Your District Can Adopt CHART
In order to receive PREP funding, school districts must:
- Adopt an "abstinence-plus" sex education policy.
- Adopt an age-appropriate, evidence-based curriculum from the approved MSDH list.
- Identify educators to participate in required training for abstinence-plus sex education.
Evidence-Based Programs: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an evidence-based (also called "science-based") program is one shown by research to be effective in changing at least one of the following behaviors that contribute to early pregnancy, STD, and HIV infection: delaying sexual initiation, reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse, reducing the number of sexual partners, or increasing the use of condoms and other contraceptives. For more information on science-based programs, read the Science-Based Approaches Q&A from the Healthy Teen Network.
MSDH List of Approved Curricula
Approved by the Mississippi Department of Education as of 3/29/2012
Elementary School Programs
None
Middle School Programs
Draw the Line/Respect the Line
High School Programs
Reducing the Risk
Resources
- CDC Healthy Teen Network: Evidence-Based Programs
- Teen Pregnancy at a Glance
Latest statistics and information from the CDC - Mississippi Department of Education: Office of Healthy Schools
- Student Health Statistics
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey System periodically assesses the health behaviors of middle- and high-school students. - HIV/STD Information
From the Mississippi State Department of Health - House Bill 999
