Improving Adolescent Health and Well Being Through SchoolBased Surveillance and the What Works in schools program - The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) requests funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Promoting Adolescent Health through School Based HIV Prevention funding opportunity (CDC-RFA-DP-24-0139) - DCPS is requesting the funding ceiling amount of $360,000.00 for this project. Over the five-year project period, funding will allow DCPS to better meet the needs of students by implementing the What Works in Schools Program, with an emphasis on reducing disparities in adolescent risk behaviors and experiences and fostering engagement with youth, families and communities. Funding will additionally guarantee the execution of surveillance activities through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, in collaboration with the DC Office of the State Superintendent for Education (DC OSSE), and School Health Profiles (SHPs), encompassing survey administration, data collection, and dissemination. This will provide valuable insights into student risk behaviors and enable the assessment of school health policies and practices in secondary schools in DCPS. Through the diligent efforts of healthcare providers, public health and education agencies, DC has seen a decline in new HIV cases with a reported 210 cases in 2022. This is an 84% decline from peak HIV incidence rates of 1,374 reported in 2007.1 Despite the downward trend in HIV cases, significant disparities exist for DC residents ages 13-24. Young people ages 17-19 represented approx. 20% of newly diagnosed HIV infections in 2021, a 5% increase from 2020, with most new infections (7 in 10) affecting men who have sex with men (MSM).1 In addition to sexual health disparities, youth carry a significant burden with mental health, particularly gender minority youth. Within DCPS, mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ students are stark in comparison to their heterosexual peers being 2.4 times as likely to experience suicidality, and 3 times as likely to experience poor mental health. To address these health needs, DCPS proposes a continuation of and enhancement of initiatives implemented in the former cooperative agreements, with a commitment to improving and expanding health education, increasing awareness of and access to key health services, ensuring our schools are safe and supportive environments for all students, staff, families, and community stakeholders, and promotion of events that will engage DCPS families and community. In efforts to continue identifying risk behaviors, gaps in knowledge and implementation of health policies, DCPS will also continue its partnership with DC’s state education agency (SEA) OSSE to coordinate efforts in implementing YRBS. Furthermore, DCPS will implement the SHPs in its secondary schools. The proposed Year 1 program aims to reach five goals: 1) identify and assist secondary schools in delivering high quality health curricula aligned with the district standards, 2) provide culturally-sensitive and specific health services and trained school staff to work with targeted populations of middle and high school students, 3) equip and empower secondary schools to expand safe, supportive and inclusive environments increasing school connectedness, parent engagement, prevent bullying and adverse mental health outcomes, 4) increase existing communications with parents and families about health services and health education to develop a framework for program activities and resource dissemination, and 5) use data from School Health Profiles and Youth Risk Behavior Surveys to reduce health disparities, including sexual and mental health
