Adolescents face distinctive challenges accessing dependable well being data and schooling. This has grow to be much more troublesome in a post-Roe panorama the place publicly out there well being data on authorities webpages proceed to be suppressed, federal and state stage reproductive coverage modifications and authorized challenges persist, and mis- and dis- details about well being—significantly, reproductive well being points like abortion and contraception—are widespread. During the last a number of years, teen being pregnant and delivery charges have fallen; nevertheless, charges of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) stay excessive amongst teenagers and younger adults. Many colleges and group teams have adopted a broad spectrum of programming that ranges from curricula aimed toward lowering teen being pregnant and STI charges—which might embrace subjects like contraception in addition to broader features of adolescents’ reproductive well being reminiscent of forming wholesome relationships—to curricula that emphasize abstinence and avoidance of all sexual dangers. The content material of those applications varies significantly and is formed by insurance policies on the college, district, state, and federal stage.
Through the years, Congressional, legislative, and govt company actions have each hindered and expanded entry to federal funding for complete intercourse schooling relying on the administration and partisanship. Most just lately, the Trump administration’s govt order formally recognizing solely two sexes—female and male—has far-reaching implications for the LGBTQ+ group and schooling. The proclamation has affected how federal businesses run well being applications, gather knowledge, share well being data, and also will form whether or not state and native intercourse education schemes supported by federal grants just like the Teen Being pregnant Prevention program, will proceed to qualify for assist.
This difficulty temporary opinions the main intercourse schooling fashions and funding streams which are mostly used, highlights state insurance policies on intercourse schooling, and summarizes what is thought in regards to the influence of those applications and insurance policies on teen sexual conduct and well being outcomes.
Sources of Intercourse Training
Adolescents obtain intercourse schooling data from a big selection of sources together with casual channels reminiscent of mother and father, mates, on-line or social media, or by means of formal settings reminiscent of college or well being care professionals. For instance, whereas most teenagers find out about condoms—essentially the most generally used contraceptive amongst teenagers—in formal academic settings and thru their mother and father—a 2024 study on youth health access discovered, not surprisingly, that many teenagers additionally get their contraceptive data from mates and on-line by means of web sites and social media.
Most youth use social media and practically half are online almost constantly on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Whereas social media may be an effective tool to unfold dependable and reliable health-related data to younger individuals, it will possibly and has been used to unfold mis- and dis-information. Anecdotally, a rising variety of younger girls have reportedly stopped utilizing hormonal oral contraceptive drugs after viewing TikTok content material describing unfavorable experiences with the tablet.
Dad and mom may be one other supply of data for adolescents. Most feminine adolescents say they mentioned “the way to say no to intercourse,” contraception strategies, and STIs/STDs with their mother and father. Most male adolescents mentioned STIs/STDs with their mother and father (55%), however fewer than half say they mentioned some other intercourse schooling subjects. Whereas most adolescents aged 15 to 19 say they acquired some intercourse schooling from their mother and father, one in 5 adolescents say they didn’t (Determine 1).
Parental involvement additionally performs a job how or whether or not college students obtain intercourse schooling from faculties. Most states (45 states and D.C.) have “opt-in” and/or “opt-out” insurance policies for intercourse schooling, which means that folks can select to take away their pupil from lessons that embrace sexual content material or should approve their participation in classroom schooling on the subject. Nonetheless, many teenagers say they acquired intercourse schooling in formal settings reminiscent of faculties and church buildings. Most reported getting details about STIs/STDs and HIV/AIDS prevention and “the way to say no” to intercourse in a proper setting (Determine 1). Far fewer adolescents, nevertheless, say they discovered about contraception strategies or ready till marriage in classroom settings. Fewer than half of adolescents say they acquired schooling on the place to get contraception.
State Insurance policies and Intercourse Training Fashions:
Affect on Youth Reproductive Well being
Most states and D.C. require some side of intercourse schooling be taught in public faculties (Determine 2). Nonetheless, the decision-making process over implementation of intercourse schooling varies on each the state and native stage, leading to completely different interpretations of program fashions and content material, in addition to the timing and total high quality of the intercourse schooling offered to kids and adolescents.
In most states (43), native college districts and generally particular person faculties develop their very own curricula, however state-level officers play a job in curriculum improvement in seven states (North Carolina, Rhode Island, Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington). State-level schooling officers—reminiscent of state boards, state departments, state commissioners, and superintendents—develop academic content material requirements that, relying on state statutes, are both required or really useful in curriculum improvement. Funding availability may decide if and the way faculties implement intercourse schooling.
There are two predominant approaches in the direction of formal intercourse schooling: sexual danger avoidance and complete intercourse schooling. These classes are broad, and the content material, strategies, and focused populations can fluctuate extensively between applications.
Sexual Danger Avoidance Training: The inspiration of those applications is to emphasise the advantages of abstaining from non-marital sexual exercise as a way of lowering dangerous behaviors, STIs, and teenage being pregnant.
- Abstinence-only: Usually, abstinence-only applications educate adolescents the way to voluntarily chorus from non-marital sexual exercise, and stress that abstinence is the one protected and efficient method to forestall unintended being pregnant and STIs. They typically don’t talk about contraceptive strategies or condoms apart from to emphasise their failure charges.
- Abstinence-plus: Some applications stress abstinence as one of the simplest ways to stop being pregnant and STIs and embrace data on contraception. Different abstinence-plus applications emphasize safer-sex practices and infrequently embrace details about wholesome relationships and existence.
Comprehensive intercourse schooling: These applications embrace medically correct, evidence-based details about each intercourse and abstinence, contraception, and using condoms to stop STI transmission. Complete applications additionally often embrace details about wholesome relationships, sexual consent, sexual orientation, and gender id.
Proponents of sexual danger avoidance schooling (SRAE) argue that educating abstinence to youth will delay teenagers’ first sexual encounter and can scale back the variety of companions they’ve, resulting in a discount in charges of youngster being pregnant and STIs. Nonetheless, there’s a restricted physique of proof to assist that SRAE applications have these results on the sexual conduct of youth, and a few research have documented no impacts on being pregnant and delivery charges.
There’s, nevertheless, considerable evidence that complete intercourse education schemes may be efficient in delaying sexual initiation amongst teenagers and enhance using contraceptives, together with condoms, amongst sexually energetic youth. Studies repeatedly present that complete intercourse schooling is related to decrease being pregnant charges, extra constant condom use, and decrease charges of unprotected intercourse. Regardless of this rising proof, 34 states require faculties to emphasize abstinence, or emphasize that abstinence is preferable to sexual exercise, if intercourse schooling is taught.
Research additionally exhibits that complete intercourse education schemes enhance college students’ well being outcomes and understanding, information, and attitudes of a variety of well being subjects, together with gender and sexual variety, violence, and wholesome relationships.
Gender and Sexual Range
For years, analysis has discovered that complete intercourse schooling with LGBTQ-inclusive curricula is related to reduced victimization amongst sexual minority youth in addition to reduced adverse mental health outcomes amongst all youth. Regardless of the demonstrated effectiveness in improved outcomes, instruction on sexual orientation and/or gender id (SOGI) is required in solely 9 states and D.C. and non-compulsory in 13 states—if intercourse schooling is taught (Determine 3). Amongst these states, eight require instruction to painting non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities as unacceptable. In different states, there may be both no express coverage or instruction on SOGI is banned altogether.
Traditionally, heterosexual and cisgender identities have been the central focus of intercourse schooling, however lately, advocates have more and more known as for extra illustration of sexual and gender variety in curricula. In 2021, roughly 3 in 10 (29.6%) LGBTQ+ college students who acquired any sort of intercourse schooling reported that LGBTQ+ illustration was optimistic, whereas over half (57%) reported receiving intercourse schooling with out “LGB or transgender/non-binary” subjects.
Though intercourse schooling content material is usually decided by states and college districts, latest actions by the Trump administration might additional impede entry to SOGI tutorial materials. In January 2025, the administration issued an govt order formally recognizing solely 2 sexes: female and male, which does not account for the complexity of intercourse and human beings and excludes recognition of gender expansive identities together with transgender and non-binary individuals. In July 2025, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) issued a policy notice limiting using federal funding from the Teen Being pregnant Prevention (TPP) program, which means grantees of this program would not obtain funding if their academic supplies mirrored “radical gender ideology” and inspired “discriminatory fairness ideology.” These actions have raised considerations about how gender and sexual variety could also be included in intercourse schooling, if in any respect.
Concern over academic content material, significantly intercourse schooling, has lengthy been a point of contention for fogeys. Dad and mom might select to decide their kids out of intercourse schooling lessons as a result of private or non secular beliefs. In recent times, parental involvement has developed right into a nationwide debate over how a lot affect mother and father needs to be allowed to have relating to their pupil’s schooling and private well being selections, with some calling for a “Parental Bill of Rights.” This motion has gained traction in a number of politically conservative states and is more and more reshaping academic curricula at school districts throughout the nation.
Wholesome Relationships and Violence
It isn’t unusual for adolescents to expertise courting violence (DV). An estimated 1 in 12 teens in 2021 report experiencing bodily DV, which might embrace being hit, injured with an object or weapon, or slammed into one thing. An estimated 1 in 10 teens report experiencing sexual DV, which incorporates undesirable bodily advances reminiscent of kissing, touching, or compelled intercourse. Some adolescents, reminiscent of feminine teenagers and people who establish as LGBTQ, report higher rates of bodily and sexual courting violence.
Research have lengthy proven that complete intercourse schooling is related to decrease charges of DV amongst adolescents and elevated information, attitudes, and expertise to kind wholesome relationships. Faculty-based applications that educate DV and intimate accomplice violence (IPV) prevention have been proven to scale back each DV and IPV amongst college students, with some applications yielding long-term outcomes. Analysis additionally exhibits that complete school-based applications enhance college students’ knowledge and attitudes in the direction of forming wholesome relationships and enhance communication skills and intention/consent.
Colleges are required to have curricula on wholesome relationships in 34 states and D.C., however fewer states (17 and D.C.) are mandated to show college students on sexual consent (Determine 4).
Abortion Information
Abortion is a protected and customary medical service that an estimated one in 4 girls will get hold of in some unspecified time in the future of their life. In 2022, 9% of abortion sufferers had been youthful than 20-years-old.
For the reason that Dobbs determination, 12 states have banned abortion, and one other 6 states have applied early gestational limits between 6 and 12 weeks. The confluence of mis- and dis- data, litigation on abortion entry, and coverage modifications on the state and federal stage has made accessing dependable and correct data on abortion troublesome for a lot of. Small shares of 15- to 17-year-olds say they acquired details about abortion up to now yr, primarily by means of sources like social media, web sites, and mates. Fewer than 4 in ten say they’re assured of their capacity to get details about abortion companies or strategies.
Abortion is basically absent from college curricula, together with in intercourse schooling class. Solely California, Colorado, and D.C. require intercourse education schemes to show about abortion. Six different states—Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, and South Carolina—restrict what may be taught relating to abortion. One third of states discourage abortion curricula in intercourse education schemes, and 5 of those states—Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, and Tennessee—require faculties to indicate college students a medically inaccurate depiction of fetal improvement starting at fertilization, generally known as the Meet Child Olivia video. These “Child Olivia” legal guidelines have been launched in a number of different states, together with Ohio, West Virginia, and Missouri.
Federal Funding Streams for Intercourse Training
Though selections relating to if and the way intercourse schooling is taught are finally left to particular person states and college districts, Congress and the chief department additionally play a job by offering monetary assist to programs that concentrate on stopping adolescent being pregnant. Federal dollars go towards applications that concentrate on sexual danger avoidance schooling/abstinence schooling, complete intercourse schooling, or a mixture of the 2 approaches.
4 main applications present the vast majority of federal {dollars} in the direction of schooling on teen being pregnant prevention: the Teen Being pregnant Prevention (TPP) program, the Private Accountability Training Program (PREP), the Title V Sexual Danger Avoidance Training Program (SRAE), and the Common Departmental (GD) Sexual Danger Avoidance Training (SRAE) program. These applications primarily fund college applications however may also fund church buildings, juvenile justice applications, and different entities. Different federal applications, together with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Adolescent Faculty Well being (DASH), additionally present various quantities of funding towards intercourse schooling initiatives every year.
The 4 main applications differ in a number of methods, together with by scope and academic strategy (Desk 1). Notably, the TPP program and PREP use evidence-based, complete intercourse schooling fashions confirmed to be efficient at stopping teen being pregnant, whereas the 2 SRAE applications stress refraining from nonmarital sexual exercise and have traditionally targeted on abstinence-only approaches. Whereas grant bulletins and notices from the 2 SRAE applications required grantees to undertake “evidence-based” interventions and “medically accurate” curricula through the Biden administration, Project 2025’s agenda—which the Trump administration has been intently mirroring of their latest coverage proposals—particularly notes that “any [sex education program] lists with ‘authorized curriculum’ or so-called evidence-based lists needs to be abolished.”
The TPP program, established in 2010, is a nationwide grant program that funds organizations to coach adolescents in making wholesome selections to enhance their sexual and reproductive well being outcomes. The big majority of TPP program individuals had been served at school settings, and a few individuals had been served in community-based settings, or different locations reminiscent of juvenile justice facilities and clinics. In comparison with the pre-pandemic period, bigger shares of individuals lately had been served in technology-based and digital settings.
Additionally established in 2010, PREP awards grants to state businesses to coach adolescents on each abstinence and contraception, specializing in those that expertise homelessness, are in foster care, dwell in areas with excessive teen delivery charges, or are from minority teams. Just like the TPP program, a lot of the applied programming came about in school settings throughout college hours, with a smaller share going down after college.
Previously generally known as the Title V Abstinence Training Grant program established in 1996, the Title V SRAE awards funds to grantees targeted on sexual danger avoidance or abstinence till marriage. The GD SRAE program equally funds applications that completely educate abstinence, with a give attention to teenagers experiencing homelessness, teen being pregnant, and home violence. An evaluation of the 2 SRAE applications present that almost all SRAE programming came about in center and excessive faculties (74%), whereas others came about in settings reminiscent of community-based organizations, faith-based establishments, and detention facilities.
The 4 applications are appropriated completely different quantities of federal funding per fiscal yr (FY). The TPP program is a discretionary grant program and acquired $101 million in FY2024. PREP and the Title V SRAE applications, each obligatory spending applications, acquired $75 million every. The GD SRAE program, a discretionary grant program, acquired $35 million in funding in FY2024. Of the $286 million of federal {dollars} devoted to teen being pregnant prevention applications from these 4 applications, 38% goes in the direction of applications that focus completely on sexual danger avoidance/abstinence schooling, which has been demonstrated to be less effective at stopping being pregnant in adolescents in comparison with complete intercourse schooling (Determine 5).
Funding for the SRAE applications had solely small fluctuations between FY2019 and FY2024 ($100-$110 million), however this has greater than doubled since FY2014 when the applications had been funded at $51.4 million in complete (Determine 6). Federal funding in the direction of complete intercourse schooling, however, has remained regular within the final 10 years, ranging between $170.6 and $176 million.
Whereas federal funding for intercourse schooling and different reproductive well being companies for adolescents has been appropriated by Congress for many years, there have been latest efforts from the Trump administration to cancel or withhold these federal {dollars} from grantees. The Trump administration just lately announced the cancellation of a $12.3 million PREP grant to California after state officers refused to revise curricula in compliance with the president’s 2025 executive order on gender. This govt order refuted the idea of “gender ideology,” and—with out scientific proof—argued that solely two sexes exist. Shortly after, the administration despatched letters to 46 extra states and territories demanding that every one references to “gender ideology” (typically taken to imply reference to transgender individuals) be faraway from PREP intercourse academic supplies. States that fail to conform may danger dropping federal funding like California’s program. As of September 2025, 16 states and D.C. have sued HHS, alleging that these present grant circumstances are illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous to gender various youth.
Comparable policy changes had been additionally made to the TPP program earlier this summer season, however the Trump administration’s actions had been blocked by a decide in October 2025. Earlier iterations of the Home Republican’s 2026 funding invoice would have likewise eradicated funding for the TPP program altogether and elevated funding for abstinence-only schooling by $5 million. These actions mirror earlier efforts to dismantle complete intercourse schooling within the classroom from the primary Trump administration, which unsuccessfully tried to cut over $200 million in federal funding for TPP program grantees. The primary Trump administration additionally shifted the TPP focus and funding away from complete intercourse schooling and in the direction of abstinence-only schooling.
The latest coverage proposals from the second Trump administration intently align with Project 2025’s agenda, which claims complete intercourse schooling promotes intercourse, prostitution, and abortion. Mission 2025’s agenda prioritizes curricula that emphasizes sexual danger avoidance, arguing that some other program shouldn’t be eligible for federal funding. President Trump’s proposed 2026 discretionary finances, which is each a funding request to Congress and documentation of administrative priorities, would eradicate assist for the TPP program in addition to the GD SRAE program, claiming that each are “duplicative” of PREP and Title V SRAE, respectively.
