A Closer Look at Florida
After a decade of progress in reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy, we are witnessing a substantial increase in the number of teens who are getting pregnant. Now more than ever, we must ensure that our teenagers receive medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education.
Faced with high teenage pregnancy rates, some School
Board members are openly questioning whether the abstinence-only approach to sex ed should be
changed.
In December, Congress released the final appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2010, which take several steps toward
properly promoting and funding programs that will improve the sexual
and reproductive health of young people.
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. Untreated STDs can lead to serious long-term health consequences, especially for adolescent girls and young women.
Healthy Teens Campaign
The Healthy Teens Campaign is a broad-based coalition made up of education, public health, and faith-based organizations that seek to improve the health and safety of Florida teens through comprehensive sex education. The Healthy Teens Campaign supports The Healthy Teens Act, which will require that Florida public schools receiving state funding provide comprehensive, medically-accurate, and age-appropriate factual information when teaching about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, family planning, or pregnancy.
Why The Healthy Teens Campaign?
Florida currently has no statewide standards for teaching sex education. A recent University of Florida study identified the following inadequacies in sex education in Florida:
- Sex education is rarely afforded an effective amount of time.
- It occurs too late in students’ academic careers (usually in 9th or 10th grade).
- There is little uniformity or standards (in terms of training or quality assurance).
- Sex education is not accessible to all students (especially Latinos).
- It fails to adequately address students’ needs.