Idaho State Profile Fiscal Year 2010
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Sexuality Education Law and Policy | Recent Legislation | Youth Sexual Health Data | Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative | Personal Responsibility Education Program | Title V Abstinence-Only Program | TPPI, PREP, and Title V Abstinence-Only Funding in FY 2010 | Comprehensive Approaches to Sex Education | Points of Contact | Organizations that Support Comprehensive Sexuality Education | Organizations that Oppose Comprehensive Sexuality Education | Media Outlets | References
Idaho
In Fiscal Year 2010[1], the state of Idaho received:
Idaho Statute §33-1608 states that the “primary responsibility of family life and sex education” rests with a student’s home and church “and the schools can only complement and supplement those standards which are established in the family.”[1] Local school boards are charged with the decision of whether to offer sexuality education, and if a school board decides to institute sexuality education, the program must place “major emphasis” on the home—including “appreciation of the important place the family home holds in the social system of our culture”—family, and church as areas of importance for learning such knowledge.[2] School boards must include parents and community groups in all aspects of instituting and evaluating sexuality education programs.
In addition, the statute states that programs should give youth “the scientific, psychological information for understanding sex and its relation to the miracle of life.” It must also include “knowledge of the power of the sex drive and the necessity of controlling that drive by self-discipline.”[3]
According to the Idaho Content Standards of Health, by the end of the 12th grade, students should be able to “assess the consequence of sexual activity (unplanned pregnancy, STDs, emotional distress).”[4]
Parents or guardians wishing to excuse their children from sexuality education must file a written request to the school board. The school board will then supply the parent with necessary forms to remove the child from the class. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.
SIECUS is not aware of any proposed legislation regarding sexuality education in Idaho.
SIECUS has compiled the following data to provide an overview of adolescent sexual health in Idaho. The data collected represents the most current information available.
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Data[5]
Teen Pregnancy, Birth, and Abortion
HIV and AIDS
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
The President’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) funds medically accurate and age-appropriate programs to reduce teen pregnancy. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) administers the grant program, which totaled $110 million in discretionary funding for Fiscal Year 2010. TPPI consists of two funding tiers that provide grants to local public and private entities. Tier 1 totals $75 million and provides funding for the replication of evidence-based programs proven to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and address underlying behavioral risk factors. Tier 2 totals $25 million and provides funding to develop and test additional models and innovative strategies. A portion of the Tier 2 funds, $15.2 million, was allocated for research and demonstration grants to test innovative approaches, while the remaining funding, $9.8 million, was allocated for grants to support communitywide initiatives. TPPI also dedicates $4.5 million in funding to conduct evaluations of individual programs.
TPPI Tier 1: Evidence-Based Programs
The TPPI Tier 1 grant program supports the replication of evidence-based programs proven effective through rigorous evaluation to prevent unintended teen pregnancy, underlying behavioral risk factors, or other associated risk factors.
TPPI Tier 2: Innovative Approaches
The TPPI Tier 2 grant program supports research and demonstration programs in order to develop, replicate, refine, and test additional models and innovative strategies for preventing teenage pregnancy.
TPPI Tier 2: Communitywide Initiatives
The TPPI Tier 2 grant program also supports communitywide initiatives to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy and births in communities with the highest rates. The program awards grants to national organizations as well as state- and community-based organizations. Funded national partners provide training and technical assistance to local grantees. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) administer the grant program in partnership with OAH.
The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) totals $75 million per year for Fiscal Years 2010–2014 and is the first-ever dedicated funding stream for more comprehensive approaches to sexuality education. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) administers the grant. PREP includes a $55 million state-grant program, $10 million to fund local entities through the Personal Responsibility Education Innovative Strategies (PREIS) Program, $3.5 million for Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and $6.5 million for evaluation, training, and technical assistance. Details on the state-grant program and PREIS are included below. At the time of publication, the funding for tribes and tribal organizations had not yet been awarded.
PREP State-Grant Program
The PREP state-grant program supports evidence-based programs that provide young people with medically accurate and age-appropriate information for the prevention of unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The grant program totals $55 million per year and allocates funding to individual states. The grant does not require states to provide matching funds. Funded programs must discuss abstinence and contraception, and place substantial emphasis on both. Programs must also address at least three of the following adulthood preparation subjects: healthy relationships, positive adolescent development, financial literacy, parent-child communication skills, education and employment skills, and healthy life skills.
The Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) program implements the state’s PREP grant through the Department of Health and Welfare. The PREP funds will be used to expand the state’s pregnancy prevention efforts by increasing adolescent access to comprehensive sexual health education and implementing culturally specific programming to address adolescent pregnancy among Latino youth. Programming will serve young people ages 10–19.[20]
In part, PREP funds will go toward increasing the capacity of the state’s seven local public health districts to implement comprehensive sexual health education in public schools across the state. Currently, local public health districts implement Reducing the Risk, an evidence-based STD/HIV-prevention education curriculum, to high school students at seven public schools. With the PREP funds, the public health districts will implement the curriculum in additional schools, with priority given to those communities with the highest rates of teen pregnancy.[21]
Reducing the Risk: Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD and HIV is an evidence-based, pregnancy-, STD-, and HIV-prevention curriculum designed for classroom use with students in the ninth and tenth grades. It is appropriate for use with multi-ethnic populations.[22] Reducing the Risk aims to reduce high-risk behaviors among participants and emphasizes strategies for abstaining from sex or practicing safer sex. The 16-lesson curriculum addresses both abstinence and contraception use and includes experiential activities that teach students to develop refusal, negotiation, and communication skills. An evaluation of the program published in Family Planning Perspectives found that it increased parent-child communication, especially among Latino youth, delayed the initiation of sexual intercourse, and reduced incidence of unprotected sex among lower-risk youth who participated in the program.[23]
Additional PREP funds will be used to address the “disproportionate pregnancy rate among [Latino] teens in Idaho.”[24] To serve this particular youth population, PREP funding will be awarded to local public and private entities to implement ¡Cuídate!, a culturally specific, HIV-prevention program, in school- and community-based settings. Programming will target youth in counties with the highest rates of teen pregnancy among Latino youth. These counties include: Ada, Adams, Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Blaine, Boise, Bonneville, Butte, Camas, Canyon, Caribou, Cassia, Clark, Custer, Elmore, Franklin, Fremont, Gem, Gooding, Jefferson, Jerome, Lemhi, Lincoln, Madison, Minidoka, Oneida, Owyhee, Payette, Power, Teton, Twin Falls, Valley, and Washington.[25]
¡Cuídate! is an evidence-based HIV-prevention curriculum adapted from the evidence-based curriculum, Be Proud! Be Responsible!, and tailored for use with Latino youth ages 13–18. The curriculum provides information about HIV and its transmission, addresses values and beliefs related to HIV and safer sex, and includes activities aimed to increase skills and self-efficacy for condom use, negotiating abstinence, and safer sex. The intervention consists of six, one-hour lessons and is designed for use with small, mixed-gender groups. It draws upon cultural beliefs, such as the importance of family and the responsibility of a man to care for his family, in order to provide messages that resonate with participants. The curriculum consists of educational games, small group discussions, videos, learning exercises, and skill-building activities. An evaluation of the curriculum published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that it reduced the frequency of sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, and incidence of unprotected sex, while increasing condom use, among participants.[26]
Personal Responsibility Education Innovative Strategies (PREIS)
The PREIS Program supports research and demonstration programs to develop, replicate, refine, and test innovative models for preventing unintended teen pregnancy. ACF administers the grant program in collaboration with OAH and provides a total of $10 million in funding directly to local public and private entities.
The Title V State Abstinence Education Grant Program (Title V Abstinence-Only Program) allocates $50 million per year to states for Fiscal Years 2010−2014. ACF administers the grant program. The Title V Abstinence-Only Program requires states to provide three state-raised dollars or the equivalent in services for every four federal dollars received. The state match may be provided in part or in full by local groups. All programs funded by the Title V Abstinence-Only Program must promote abstinence from sexual activity as their exclusive purpose and may provide mentoring, counseling, and adult supervision toward this end. Programs must be medically accurate and age-appropriate and must ensure abstinence is an expected outcome.
SIECUS has identified some examples of model programs, policies, and best practices being implemented in Idaho public schools that provide a more comprehensive approach to sex education for young people.[27]
Comprehensive Sex Education Programs in Public Schools
Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program
The Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) program is an initiative of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Bureau of Community and Environmental Health. Since 1997, the program has used a comprehensive approach to sexuality education to forward efforts to reduce adolescent pregnancy in the state. Currently, APP collaborates with the state’s seven public health districts to implement Reducing the Risk, an evidence-based, STD/HIV-prevention curriculum, to high school students at seven public schools across the state. APP plans to use funding provided by the state’s PREP grant to expand programming to additional schools. (Please see the PREP State-Grant section above for more information about the state’s grant program and Reducing the Risk.)
The state also implements Wise Guys, a pregnancy-prevention program for young males, and is currently implementing a pilot pregnancy prevention program for college students.[28] Wise Guys Male Responsibility Curriculum (Wise Guys) is a teen pregnancy prevention curriculum designed for adolescent males ages 11–17. The curriculum was developed by the Family Life Council of Greensboro, North Carolina. Wise Guys focuses on equipping youth to “make wiser and more responsible decisions” about their sexual health.[29] The curriculum includes 10 lessons that address self-esteem, personal and family values, goal-setting, stereotypes of masculinity, communication skills, reproductive anatomy, puberty, STDs, including HIV, delaying sexual intercourse, the consequences of teenage pregnancy/early parenthood, and other topics.[30] Wise Guys is appropriate for use in both school- and community-based settings.
APP also manages a website that provides comprehensive sexual health information to parents and teens. The website addresses topics such as abstinence, pregnancy- and STD/HIV-risk, birth control methods, including condoms, sexual decision-making, and how to communicate about sex, as well as provides additional resources, including Idaho teen pregnancy data and links to external information websites.[31] One part of the website for teens defines the different types of sex and offers information about sexual risk behavior. In part, the information states: “Abstinence is making the choice to NOT have sex. It’s a choice people make at different times in their lives, and for different reasons. Some teens choose to not have sex because of religious reasons, while other teens choose not to have sex so they can focus on school. And some teens abstain in order to avoid [ a sexually transmitted infection] and pregnancy. If you choose to have sex, knowing the facts about birth control/condoms will help reduce your chance of [a sexually transmitted infection] and pregnancy. But remember, abstinence is the most effective way to prevent [sexually transmitted infections] and pregnancy.”[32]
Northwest Coalition for Adolescent Health
The Northwest Coalition for Adolescent Health provides evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programming to youth in school and community-based settings across five states in the Northwest. The coalition consists of six Planned Parenthood affiliates, including Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, Planned Parenthood of Columbia Willamette, Planned Parenthood of Montana, Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon, and Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood.
The coalition provides programming to young people with the support of a TPPI Tier 1 grant totaling $4,000,000 over five years. Programming targets high-risk African American, Native American, Russian, and Ukrainian youth in grades 7–12 living in both rural and urban communities with substantially high teen birth and pregnancy rates and health disparities. The coalition will implement Teen Outreach Program (TOP ) at 73 schools and community agencies in 27 counties across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Approximately 2,000 youth will be served annually through the program.
Teen Outreach Program (TOP) is an evidence-based youth development program that engages young people in experiential learning activities in order to “prepare for successful adulthood and avoid problem behaviors.”[33] The program is designed for youth ages 12–17 and focuses on reducing rates of school failure, school suspension, and teen pregnancy. TOP consists of a nine-month curriculum that addresses such topics as relationships, peer pressure, decision making, values clarification, goal-setting, adolescent development, and sexual health.[34] It also includes a 20-hour community service component that engages participants in activities to enhance knowledge and develop skills, including self-efficacy, communication, conflict-management, and self-regulation. TOP can be delivered as an in-school, after-school, or community-based program. An evaluation of the program published in Child Development found that young women, ages 15–19, who participated in TOP were significantly less likely to report a pregnancy during the program than participants in the control group.[35]
TOP will be primarily implementedduring classroom instruction while in some communities the program will be implemented as after-school programming. Participants will meet once a week for a minimum of 25 meetings over the nine-month period of the program. The service-learning component will take place on weekday evenings and on weekends.[36]
We encourage you to submit any updated or additional information on comprehensive approaches to sex education being implemented in Idaho public schools for inclusion in future publications of the SIECUS State Profiles. Please visit SIECUS’ “Contact Us” webpage at www.siecus.org to share information. Select “state policy” as the subject heading.
Adolescent Health Contact[37]
Kara Stevens
Manager
Environmental Health and Injury Prevention Section
Bureau of Community & Environmental Health
Department of Health and Welfare
450 West State Street, Sixth Floor
Boise, ID 83702
Phone: (208) 332-7319
PREP State-Grant Coordinator
Katherine Humphrey, MS, CHES
Health Program Specialist
Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention
Bureau of Community & Environmental Health
Department of Health and Welfare
450 West State Street, Sixth Floor
Boise, ID 83702
Phone: (208) 334-4961
Newspapers in Idaho[38]
Political Blogs in Idaho
[1]Idaho Code Ann. § 33-1608, <http://legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title33/T33CH16SECT33-1608.htm>.
[2]Idaho Code Ann. § 33-1608(a), <http://legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title33/T33CH16SECT33-1608.htm>.
[3]Idaho Code Ann. § 33-1608(b), <http://legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title33/T33CH16SECT33-1608.htm>.
[4]Idaho Content Standards for Health, <http://www.sde.idaho.gov/contentstandards/docs/Health%20Standards/Healthall.pdf>.
[5]Danice K. Eaton, et. al., “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2009,” Surveillance Summaries, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 59, no. SS-5 (4 June 2010): 98–109, accessed 4 June 2010, <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf>. Note: Idaho did not participate in the full 2009 YRBS.
[6]“Births: Final Data for 2008,” National Vital Statistics Report, vol. 59, (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December 2010), accessed 29 June 2011, <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_01.pdf>, Table 12.
[7]“VitalStats: Birth Data Files by State, Age of Mother in Years, 2008,” (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), accessed 30 June 2011, <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstats/VitalStats_Births.htm>.
[8]U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births, and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity, (Washington, DC: Guttmacher Institute, January 2010), accessed 5 March 2010, <http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends.pdf>, Table 3.1.
[9]Ibid., Table 3.2.
[10]U.S.Teenage Pregnancies, Births, and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity., Table 3.3.
[11]HIV Surveillance Report, 2008, (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 2010), accessed 28 June 2011, <http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/surveillance/resources/
[12]Ibid.
[13]Slide 9: “Rates of Diagnoses of HIV Infection among Adolescents Aged13–19 Years, 2009—40 States and 5 U.S. Dependent Areas,” HIV Surveillance in Adolescents and Young Adults, (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2011), accessed 27 September 2011, <http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/adolescents/index.htm>.
[14]HIV Surveillance Report, 2008, Table 20.
[15]Ibid.
[16]Slide 18: “Rates of Diagnoses of AIDS Infection among Adolescents Aged13–19 Years, 2009—40 States and 5 U.S. Dependent Areas,” HIV Surveillance in Adolescents and Young Adults, (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2011), accessed 27 September 2011, <http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/adolescents/index.htm>.
[17]“Wonder Database: Selected STDs by Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender, 1996-2008 Results,” (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 30 June 2009, accessed 5 March 2010, <http://wonder.cdc.gov>; see also Table 10: “Chlamydia: Reported Cases and Rates Per 100,000 Population by Age Group and Sex: United States, 2004–2008,” Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2008, (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of STD Prevention, November 2009), accessed 5 March 2010, <http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats08/surv2008-Complete.pdf>, 95.
[18]Ibid; see also Table 20: “Gonorrhea—Reported Cases and Rates per 100,000 Population by Age Group and Sex: United States, 2004–2008,” Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2008,106.
[19]Ibid; see also Table 33: “Primary and Secondary Syphilis—Reported Cases and Rates per 100,000 Population by Age Group and Sex: United States, 2004–2008,” Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2008, 121.
[20]“Personal Responsibility Education Program: Idaho State Plan Abstract,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Information provided by Katherine Humphrey, health program specialist for the Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention program, 9 February 2011.
[21]Ibid.
[22]Science and Success: Sex Education and Other Programs That Work to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, HIV & Sexually Transmitted Infections (Washington, DC: Advocates for Youth, 2008), accessed 30 March 2010, <http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/storage/advfy/documents/sciencesuccess.pdf>, 22.
[23]Ibid., 23–24.
[24]“Personal Responsibility Education Program: Idaho State Plan Abstract,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
[25]Ibid.
[26]“Cuidate!” Evidence-Based Programs, Resource Center for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (ReCAPP), ETR Associates, accessed 5 May 2010, <http://www.etr.org/recapp/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.ebpDetail&PageID=577&PageTypeID=2>; see also Science and Success: Sex Education and Other Programs That Work to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, HIV & Sexually Transmitted Infections, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Advocates for Youth, 2008), accessed 30 March 2010, <http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/storage/advfy/documents/sciencesuccess.pdf>, 76–79.
[27]This is by no means a complete list of all comprehensive programming and policies related to sexuality education, but rather some examples of best practices and model programs that SIECUS identified.
[28]Information provided by Mercedes Muñoz, program manager for the Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention program, 17 February 2011.
[29]“Welcome,” Wise Guys, accessed 15 August 2011, <http://www.wiseguysnc.org/default.asp>.
[30]“Curriculum Chapter Synopsis,” Wise Guys, accessed 15 August 2011, <http://www.wiseguysnc.org/ch_synopsis.htm>.
[31]“Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention,” Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, accessed 29 August 2011, <http://www.idahoteenpregnancy.com/>.
[32]“What is Your Sexpertise?” Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, accessed 29 August 2011, <http://www.idahoteenpregnancy.com/teen-sexpertise.html>.
[33]Saras Chung and Annie Philipps, Promoting Mental Health and Well-being in Adolescents: Recommendations for Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program, (Eureka, MO: Wyman Teen Outreach Program, 2010), accessed 1 July 2011, <http://www.wymantop.org/pdfs/TOP_Positive_Well-Being.pdf>, 3.
[34]Ibid, 9.
[35]“Pregnancy Prevention Intervention Implementation Report: Teen Outreach Program,” Programs for Replication – Intervention Implementation Reports, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, accessed 1 July 2011, <http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/prevention/research/programs/teen_outreach_program.html>.
[36]Information provided by Willa Marth, Director of Education and Organizational Effectiveness for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, 21 June 2011.
[37]The person listed represents the designated personnel in the state responsible for adolescent reproductive health.
[38]This section is a list of major newspapers in the state and is by no means exhaustive of local print outlets.
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