School officials need to be informed of evidence-based education programs and how to implement the curricula in schools.

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.

• CHART Training Resources

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.

• More about PREP

How Your District Can Adopt CHART

In order to receive PREP support, school districts must:

• Adopt the CHART abstinence-plus sex education policy.
• Adopt the CHART approved curricula.
• Identify educators to participate in required training for abstinence-plus sex education.

• More information on becoming a CHART District

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 implementing an evidence-based program, visit the Healthy Teen Network's evidence-based resource center.

MSDH Approved Curriculum

• Reducing the RiskPersonal responsibility curriculum for high school students

Resources

• CDC Healthy Teen Network: Evidence-Based Programs
• Teen Pregnancy in the United States
• Mississippi Department of Education: Office of Healthy Schools
• Student Health StatisticsThe Youth Risk Behavior Survey System periodically assesses the health behaviors of middle- and high-school students.
• HIV/STD InformationFrom the Mississippi State Department of Health