What Works: Sexual Health Education

Quality sexual health education (SHE) provides students with the knowledge and skills to help them be healthy and avoid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and unintended pregnancy. A SHE curriculum includes medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant content and skills that target key behavioral outcomes and promote healthy sexual development. The curriculum is age-appropriate and planned across grade levels to provide information about health risk behaviors and experiences. Sexual health education should be consistent with scientific research and best practices; reflect the diversity of student experiences and identities; and align with school, family, and community priorities.

Quality sexual health education programs share many characteristics. These programs:

• Are taught by well-qualified and highly-trained teachers and school staff
• Use strategies that are relevant and engaging for all students
• Address the health needs of all students, including the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth
• Connect students to sexual health and other health services at school or in the community
• Engage parents, families, and community partners in school programs
• Foster positive relationships between adolescents andimportant adults.

A school health education program that includes a quality SHE curriculum targets the development of critical knowledge and skills needed to promote healthy behaviors and avoid risks. It is important that SHE explicitly incorporate skill development. Giving students time to practice, assess, and reflect on skills taught in the curriculum helps move them toward independence, critical thinking, and problem solving to avoid HIV, STDs, and unintended pregnancy.

Quality sexual health education programs teach students how to:

• Analyze family, peer, and media influences that impact health
• Access valid and reliable health information, products, and services (e.g., HIV/STD testing)
• Communicate with family, peers, and teachers about issues that affect health
• Make informed and thoughtful decisions about their health
• Take responsibility for themselves and others to improve their health.

Promoting and implementing well-designed SHE programs positively impacts student health in a variety of ways. Students who participate in these programs are more likely to:

• Delay initiation of sexual intercourse
• Have fewer sex partners
• Have fewer experiences of unprotected sex
• Increase their use of protection, specifically condoms
• Improve their academic performance.

In addition to providing knowledge and skills to address sexual behavior, quality SHE programs can be tailored to include information on high-risk substance use^*, suicide prevention, and how to keep students from committing or being victims of violence—behaviors and experiences that place youth at risk for poor health and academic outcomes.

To successfully put quality SHE into practice, schools need supportive policies, appropriate content, trained staff, and engaged parents and communities. Schools can put these four elements in place to support SHE.

Keys To Success

Include enough time during professional development and training for teachers to practice and reflect on what they learned (essential knowledge and skills) to support their sexual health education instruction.

Keys To Success

By law, if your school district or school is receiving federal HIV prevention funding, you will need an HIV Materials Review Panel (HIV MRP) to review all HIV-related educational and informational materials. This review panel can include members from your School Health Advisory Councils, as shared expertise can strengthen material review and decision making.