Some middle and high school students in the Sunnyside Unified School District will be able to get a more comprehensive sexual education, thanks to a federal grant.
The Tucson Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition, which includes the district, received a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health Services’ Office of Adolescent Health to develop abstinence-based, protection-incorporated sex ed curricula.
The coalition members are: Sunnyside, Child & Family Resources, Planned Parenthood Arizona and Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring awareness to students and also help them not only prevent unwanted pregnancies but to be aware of how to protect themselves,” said Eugenia Favela, assistant superintendent for student services at Sunnyside.
The program targets eighth- and ninth-graders and teens who are pregnant or parenting, she said. In total, the program would serve about 1,500 students in the first year and 11,900 over the five-year grant period.
The program is designed so that it teaches both abstinence and protection methods if teens do start having sex, said Marie Fordney, a director at Child & Family Resources, who is leading the program. Classes would be conducted as part of the school day in health or science classes.
“We’re providing proven, effective teen pregnancy prevention programming,” she said.
The material being developed for the program would be abstinence-based, she said. “The only 100 percent way to not get pregnant or get STDs is to not have sex.”
But the program isn’t exclusively about abstinence. Information about contraception and other prevention methods will be incorporated into the course so that the message is “balanced,” Fordney said.
“We’re not ever going to impose our own values about sexual activity on the youth that participate,” Fordney said. “The values conversation is coming from the parent. We are providing information.”
As required by Arizona law, the school district must get written consent from parents for their children to enroll in the sexual education courses provided by this program.
The district has a sex education model that primarily teaches the reproductive side of sex, said Favela, the assistant superintendent.
The new program would also teach students about having healthy relationships, making smart choices and taking care of themselves, she said.
“When we talk about college and career readiness, this is all part of it – social skills, learning about how to take care of yourself,” she said.
The district’s goal is to have more than 90 percent of eligible students enrolled in the new sex ed program, which would be offered in the upcoming spring semester, Favela said.
Sunnyside also hopes to eventually create a comprehensive K-12, grade-appropriate sexual education model. Helping facilitate that is part of what partners like Planned Parenthood Arizona and Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services are here to do.
“We want to create sustainability in this program,” said Vicki Hadd-Wissler, director of education at Planned Parenthood Arizona, who would be training the school teachers and administrators.
