The New Jersey Department of Education is using the school health team approach to strengthen HIV, STD and pregnancy prevention in urban high schools that serve the greatest numbers of low-income African-American and Hispanic students and have the highest community rates of HIV and STDs. Eight high schools have formed teams and are assessing their policies and programs using a tool modeled after the CDC’s School Health Index. Teams from the 8 participating high schools have already provided such activities as a mother-daughter retreat, a parent café with facilitated discussion of student health topics during parent night, distribution of local STD facts (and apples) at the home-coming football game, and a World AIDS Day challenge for all students to post HIV prevention messages on index cards, with the top five ideas honored. The team approach has allowed champions and leaders who are not health or physical education teachers to step forward while providing positive challenge to others to grow in their leadership skills. Team sponsored events have greatly increased the visibility of health education to the school community. Project participation has reduced the isolation of health teachers and given them a voice for promoting changes in school policy and programs. Further, it has provided a forum for exchange of ideas that are highly relevant to urban high schools. NJDOE supports the school teams through small grants of up to $3,000 annually, five or more days of training annually and technical assistance.
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services support the project by providing speakers for training events. Answer, located at Rutgers University, provides several days of training annually, designed specifically for participating health and physical education teachers.
Sarah Kleinman
sarah.kleinman@doe.state.nj.us
www.nj.gov/education/
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