The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) proposes to implement Improving Adolescent Health and Well- Being Through School-Based Surveillance and the What Works in Schools Program (CDC-RFA-DP-24-0139) Component 1: Local implementation of What Works in Schools and School-based Surveillance. LAUSD is the nation’s second largest school district, with an annual enrollment of 563,083 K-12 students at 1,306 schools. Nearly 90% of LAUSD students are people of color, including 74% Latino and 7.1% African American students. 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data demonstrates that LAUSD’s roughly 202,827 high school and middle school students engage in many behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, STDs and pregnancy. Consistently high levels of risk behaviors among students underscore the need for health education and prevention education activities, as well as the need to continue programs already effectively impacting students. The purpose of the proposed project is to build LAUSD’s schools’ capacity to provide quality health education, connect students to health services, including mental and behavioral health services, and to create safe and supportive environments. Additionally, the proposed project will allow us to collect and use school-based surveillance data through the YRBSS and School Health Profiles (Profiles), that will help assess needs to improve adolescent health, track behaviors and experiences over time, and understand the impact of programs and policies. We will also include Tier 1 questions pertaining to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) in the YRBS. LAUSD will implement a multifaceted, collaborative initiative designed to accomplish the following outcomes: Increases in:
1. teacher and staff knowledge, comfort, and skills to deliver health education;
2. student access to HED programs;
3. student and staff awareness of health services (HS) for students;
4. staff awareness, knowledge, and skills for creating safe and supportive school environments;
5. student participation in positive youth development approaches;
6. student participation in safe and supportive school environment activities;
7. staff participation in mental health and well-being activities;
8. opportunities for student leadership in district and school decision- making;
9. student receipt of high- quality health education
10. student receipt of health services
11. district and school-level access to health services for students
12. partnerships to support student health outcomes
13. student and staff perceptions of a safe and inclusive school environment
14. student and staff feelings of school connectedness
15. school district understanding of short- term trends in youth risk behaviors and experiences and of school health policies and practices.
