By: Rebecca Dineen, Assistant Commissioner, Maternal and Child Health, Baltimore City Health Department

It’s Back to School time in Baltimore, and many students are returning to classrooms eager to learn. But, we know that unintended teen pregnancy is the number one reason that young women do not complete high school, and this leads to continued cycles of poverty, unemployment and poor health for both mother and young child.

Baltimore City’s teen birth rate (43.3 per 1,000 teen girls) is 1.5 times higher than the national rate and twice as high as the state of Maryland. If we want to invest in our City’s future potential, this is unacceptable.

While existing teen pregnancy programs such as our U Choose Coalition have helped reduce the birth rate for teenagers (age 15 – 19) by an unprecedented 32 percent between 2009 and 2013, there remains need for health education; four out of ten high school students in Baltimore attend schools not meeting national standards for health education.

So, we’re excited to announce that Baltimore has received an $8.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to build a comprehensive reproductive health education program in our middle and high schools, and the Health Department will be collaborating with the Baltimore City Public Schools to develop and implement this initiative.

The purpose of the grant is to reach nearly 16,000 adolescents ages 12-19 each year with evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs implemented in middle schools, high schools and Title X community- and school-based clinics in Baltimore. We intend to decrease the overall teen pregnancy rate by 30% by the end of the five-year grant period through reductions in disparities among African American and Hispanic teens (teen pregnancy rates of 51.1 and 65.4 respectively).

In addition to the school system, other partners on the project include Planned Parenthood of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University Center for Adolescent Health, Healthy Teen Network, Family League of Baltimore, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Behavioral Health System Baltimore, and a network of seven Title X clinics.

For middle schools, we selected Adult Identity Mentoring (Project AIM) to achieve health outcomes and help improve engagement in school among a population with high rates of poverty, trauma and sexual risk and at high risk for chronic absenteeism. Project AIM’s focus on goal-setting and academic achievement will help retain students in the school system and increase exposure to reinforcing teen pregnancy prevention programming in high school.

We selected Be Proud! Be Responsible! for high schools because of its ability to reduce this population’s high rates of pregnancy, students reporting four or more sexual partners,  students reporting recent sexual activity  as well as rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea that are 1.5 times higher than national rates. The clinic setting is a key part of program design, allowing us to link large numbers of students with youth-friendly reproductive health services, reinforce prevention education, and extend reach to out-of-school teens.

This grant will allow for the integration of comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programming into the public school system for the first time ever. With strong partners and a strong Youth Advisory Council, numerous collaborating agencies, and the support of the City’s top leadership, we stand poised to improve the health and well-being of many generations of Baltimore youth.