Blog post 5

All group members were present when we met on 11/14.

Sarah and Debra continue to look up resources and information regarding sex education courses outside of Utah, paying close attention to how effective alternative courses are at STI/pregnancy prevention in teens.

 Amanda will work on scheduling a meeting with Kerry Jensen from Prevent Child Abuse, as she is familiar with the current sex education curriculum being used locally.  Once we are able to meet with her, our group may have a better understanding of what this curriculum looks like in practice and how it’s being received by school staff and students alike.

Roxy and Alex continue to research local STI/teen pregnancy rates in the area to help narrow down which school districts our group should focus on.

 Janet contacted Terry Haven from Voices for Utah Children to gather information about the statistics used in the Kids Count report.  She stated that the stats regarding teen pregnancy and Chlamydia infection rates were gathered from the Department of Health.  Any other information is gathered using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  She acknowledged that the information regarding teen sexual behavior is limited, but that the state legislature didn’t want to have the “sex questions” included on the survey.  All of the data in the Kids Count report is used by a variety of organizations, the media, the legislature and service providing agencies for grant writing purposes.