Susan Tew/Chris Kirchgaessner

212-248-1111

mediaworks@agi-usa.org

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 9:30 AM, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1999

U.S. PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS OVERWHELMINGLY PROMOTE ABSTINENCE, BUT NOT TO THE EXCLUSION OF CONTRACEPTIVE INFORMATION

Still, One-Third Say Instruction Must Be “Abstinence-Only” and Prohibit or Distort Contraceptive Information

Among the seven in 10 public school districts that have a district-wide policy to teach sexuality education, the vast majority (86%) require that abstinence be promoted, either as the preferred option for teenagers (51% have such an abstinence-plus policy) or as the only option outside of marriage (35% have such an abstinence-only policy), according to a new study by The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Just 14% have a comprehensive policy that addresses abstinence as one option in a broader educational program to prepare adolescents to become sexually healthy adults. In almost two-thirds of district policies across the nation those with comprehensive and abstinence-plus policies discussion about the benefits of contraception is permitted. However, in the one-third of districts with an abstinence-only policy, information about contraception is either prohibited entirely or limited to discussion of its ineffectiveness in protecting against unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“It is unconscionable for young people who attend schools in one-third of districts to be denied basic yet vital information for preventing unplanned pregnancy and STDs. This should be of deep concern to parents in this country,” comments Cory L. Richards, vice president for public policy with the Institute. “Teaching abstinence as the only option outside of marriage an unrealistic approach in which contraception may not be discussed at all or may only be discussed to highlight its shortcomings is very troubling, particularly given the lack of evidence that this approach is effective in postponing teenagers sexual involvement.”

The study, “Abstinence Promotion and the Provision of Information About Contraception in Public School District Sexuality Education Policies,” by David J. Landry, Lisa Kaeser and Cory L. Richards, is published in the November/December 1999 issue of the Institute s bimonthly professional journal, Family Planning Perspectives. It presents findings from the first nationwide assessment at the local school district level of the extent to which sexuality education policy now focuses on abstinence promotion and whether these policies have affected the provision of contraceptive information. On the basis of a nationally representative survey of 825 school district superintendents (or their representatives) completed in October 1998, it examines existing policies across the country (in districts that teach grade six or higher) and how they vary by district characteristics.

The study, conducted before states began implementing any abstinence-only efforts stemming specifically from the 1996 national welfare reform legislation, also examines school superintendents perceptions of the factors that most influenced their policies. The superintendents were asked to choose, from among 11 possibilities, the single most important factor that influenced their district’s current sexuality education policy. One of three factors state directives, recommendations of special school board advisory committees or task forces, or school board actions was named by at least three-quarters of districts. Overall, regardless of their abstinence policy, almost one-half of the districts (48%) cited state directives as the most influential factor.

Superintendents were also asked how supportive they thought their community is of their district’s current sexuality education policy. About half (53%) said that the community is “generally silent” on the issue, 41% reported that their community “strongly supports” the policy, 5% said that the community is divided and fewer than 1% said that it is “generally opposed.”

Among the superintendents surveyed who knew when their current policy was adopted, only 16% said that the policy predated 1990. Over half (53%) said that it was adopted after 1995, and another 31% said that it was adopted between 1990 and 1995. Superintendents were also asked whether their current policy had replaced a previous one. Among districts that switched from one abstinence policy category to another, most of the change was toward abstinence-plus policies. There was no net change in the number of districts with abstinence-only policies.

Other key findings of the new analysis include the following:

• More than two-thirds (69%) of all U.S. public school districts (covering 86% of students) have a policy to teach sexuality education; almost one-third (31%) of districts (covering just 14% of students) leave policy decisions concerning sexuality education to individual schools within the district or to teachers.
• Among all U.S. students attending school in a district that includes grade six or higher, 9% are in districts that have a comprehensive sexuality education policy, 45% in districts with an abstinence-plus policy, 32% in abstinence-only policy districts and 14% in districts that have no policy.
• Over half (55%) of districts with a sexuality education policy in the South have an abstinence-only policy (20 percentage points higher than the national average), while only 20% of Northeast districts have such a policy (15 percentage points below the national average).

“To maintain the momentum in declining U.S. teenage pregnancy rates since 1990, we must ensure that students receive complete and accurate sexuality education that supports responsible sexual and reproductive decision-making,” comments David J. Landry, senior research associate with the Institute. “The provision of accurate information about contraception while supporting the choice of young people to delay sexual intercourse should continue to be a high national priority.”

###

The Alan Guttmacher Institute s Web site address: http://www.agi -usa.org

The Alan Guttmacher Institute is a not-for-profit corporation focused on reproductive health research, policy analysis and public education, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

Are Schools Just Saying No

Are Schools “Just Saying No?”

Is Abstinence-Only the Trend in Sex Education?

And, Who Influences Policy?

Tuesday, December 14

9:30 am-11:30 am

National Press Club First Amendment Room

529 14^th Street NW, 13^th Floor

Washington, D.C.

9:30 amRegistration

9:50 amWelcome/Introductions

10:00 amNew Research: Findings from Two New National Surveys of Public School Administrators about Sex Education Today

• Cory L. Richards, Vice President for Public Policy, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, will provide an overview of sex education legislation across the nation and how sex education policy is set, and discuss the findings from a national survey of superintendents about school district policy and approaches to sex education.

• Tina Hoff, Director of Public Health Information and Communications, Kaiser Family Foundation,

will present the results from a national survey of public secondary school principals about the nature and outcome of debates over sex education in their schools, and who influences what gets taught.

10:30 amPolicy & Politics: What are the Major Debates Over Sex Education?

And, Are They Changing Curricula? (Moderator: Tina Hoff)

• Monica Rodriguez, Director of Education, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), will give an overview of how the first two years of federal funding for abstinence-only programs has affected sex education as well as discuss public opinion on sex education.

• Doug Bailey, President & CEO, FreedomChannel.com,

will talk about the politics of sex education, to what extent it is an issue for voters in local and state elections, as well as how it is being raised in the upcoming presidential election.

• Brenda Z. Greene, Director, School Health Programs, National School Boards

Association, will discuss how state and federal legislation, local politics, community pressure, and other factors influence school boards’ decisions about sex education.

11:00 a.m.Questions and Answers

11:30 a.m. Lunch with participants

Long-Term Care: Medicaid’s Role and Challenges

This Policy Brief examines Medicaid’s role in providing long-term care services. It describes long-term care services, the population that needs these services, and how people get long-term care services. It provides an overview of health insurance coverage of persons with long-term care needs and describes both Medicare’s and Medicaid’s role in providing these services. It also examines some of the policy issues and challenges involved in providing long-term care services to an aging society.

• Policy Brief

is one of the most comprehensive national public studies ever conducted of young people’s media use. The study, based on a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 children ages 2 -18, shows how much time kids spend watching TV and movies, using computers, playing video games, listening to music, and reading. The report also looks at how much oversight parents exert over their children’s media use, and addresses numerous other issues such as how kids use media, whether ‘new’ media is replacing traditional media, and whether use of new media varies by age, gender or race.

• Agenda
• Biographies of Roundtable Participants
• Executive Summary
• Appendices
• Report
• Fact Sheet

class=normal>Kids & Media @ The New MillenniumNovember 17, 1999New York City

Agenda

8:30 a.m. Registration

9:00 a.m. Welcome – Drew E. Altman, Ph.D., President, Kaiser Family Foundation

9:10 a.m. Presentation of study results

Key findings: Vicky Rideout, Director, Kaiser Family Foundation’sProgram on the Entertainment Media & Public Health

Comments: Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Communication,Stanford University

Questions from the press: Drew E. Altman, Ph.D.

10:00 a.m. Roundtable discussion – Jeff Greenfield, CNN, moderator

Discussants: Barrett Alexander, CEO, Rogue EntertainmentKen Auletta, The New YorkerJane Brown, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Chuck D, Public Enemy Christina Ferrari, Managing Editor, Teen People Tom Freston, CEO, MTV Networks Alan Kay, Vice President, Walt Disney CompanyJamie Kellner, CEO, The WB Television Network William Kennard, Chair, Federal Communications CommissionRebecca Odes, gURL.com Neil Postman, Ph.D., New York University Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D., Stanford University Joel Schumacher, Writer/Director Deborah Tang, Vice President, BET Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Actor

12:00 noon Adjournment

A 2-page issue brief about the collection and use of health care information for California’s public health, health care and managed care systems. The issue brief includes a brief outline of the kind of health care information that is currently being collected at both the state and national level to support policy development, government oversight, and consumer education. The Issue Brief lists Roundtable participants for a Roundtable Event: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 – 1:00-4:00 PM, State Capitol, Room 112, Sacramento, California.

• Issue Brief

In November 1996, the Kaiser Family Foundation initiated a project to examine different strategies for expanding health insurance coverage to America’s growing uninsured population. The Foundation asked two leading health policy experts with experience in Democratic and Republican leadership roles, Judith Feder and Sheila Burke, to direct the project’s work in considering and evaluating the potential for, and likely impact of, alternative incremental reform options. This continuing effort has made important contributions to the public and policy dialogue about covering the uninsured. With new proposals emerging across political parties as we head into the 2000 election, the project’s analysis of tax-based reform options along with direct subsidy or government expansion options is directly relevant and useful to the debate. produced a series of expert proposals and issue papers .

Results from the 1999 Survey of Experiences with Medicare HMOs

This report examines the effects of Medicare HMO withdrawals on elderly and disabled beneficiaries who were involuntarily disenrolled from their HMO at the end of 1998. Based on a nationally-representative survey, the report describes new insurance arrangements made by beneficiaries after their HMO withdrew and considers the effects of this insurance transition on benefits, costs, and continuity of care. The study finds that most beneficiaries fared relatively well after their Medicare HMO withdrew, but more than a third of all disenrollees experienced a decline in supplemental benefits, nearly 40 percent incurred higher premiums, and over 20 percent had to find a new personal doctor. Beneficiaries who experienced the greatest problems after their HMO terminated coverage tended to be the under-age-65 disabled, racial and ethnic minority beneficiaries, the poor and near-poor, and those reporting fair or poor health. A paper based on the findings in this report appears in the November/December 1999 issue of Health Affairs, Volume 18, Number 6.

• Report

The Role of U.S. Grantmakers in a Changing Region

The Southern Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group

November 10 12, 1999

The Westfields Marriott Hotel

Chantilly, Virginia

AGENDA

November 10

3:30pm on-goingCHECK-IN

6:00pm 8:00pmDINNER RECEPTION: Welcome & Opening Discussion

Jeffersonian VI RoomTopic:“Southern Africa: Challenges and Prospects”

• Amb. James Joseph, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa

November 11 (casual attire)

6:30am 8:30amBREAKFAST

Fairfax Dining Room 1

9:00am 9:15amINTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Grand Dominion VI Room

9:15am 9:40amKEYNOTE ADDRESS “The Role of Private Funders in Southern Africa: Pushing the Envelope or Swimming with the Tide”

• Yolanda Richardson, Senior Vice President, Africare

former Program Officer, Carnegie Corporation of New York

9:40am 11:00amPANEL DISCUSSION: Response from the Region

• Panelists:

• Hope Chigudu, Co-Founder, Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network, Zimbabwe
• Sibongile (Bongi) Mkabela, Senior Programmes Manager, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, South Africa
• Edgar Pieterse, Executive Director, Isandla Institute, South Africa
• Carlos Fumo, Executive Director, Foundation for Community Development, Mozambique

11:00am 11:15amBREAK

11:15am 12:30pmROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:

Grand Dominion VI Room “Prospects for Civil Society and the Enabling Environment in Southern Africa”

12:30pm 2:00pmLUNCH

Fairfax Dining Room 1

2:00pm 3:00pmBREAKOUT INTO WORKGROUPS

Workgroup 1:Developing guidelines for effective grantmaking (investment driven grantmaking; indigenous philanthropy, endowments). Adams Room

Workgroup 2: Examining practical recommendations for developing and sustaining partnerships between bi-lateral and international donor organizations, funders, NGOs and government. Grand Dominion VI Room

Workgroup 3:Making the Affinity Group a more Effective Resource. Hamilton Room

3:30pm 5:00pmWORKING GROUPS REPORT BACK AND DISCUSSION

Grand Dominion VI Room

7:00pmDINNER

Grand Dominion VI RoomTopic:“The HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Implications and Responses”

• Dr. Olive Shisana, Executive Director, Family & Community Health, World Health Organization, Geneva

November 12 (casual attire)

7:00am 8:30amBREAKFAST

Fairfax Dining Room 1

8:30am 10:30amROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:

Grand Dominion VI Room “Practical Ideas, Strategic Realities, and Perceived Priorities”

11:00amCHECK-OUT

An analysis of issues affecting reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The study examines the historical impact and effectiveness of the current law, its relevance in the context of the contemporary health environment and the issues pertinent to discussions about reauthorization of the Act.

• Report