Health awareness and services for adoloscents

According to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) teens in the United States are less likely to receive recommended preventative health services than younger children and adults. Although schools play a critical role in providing health services for teens, including sexual health services (SHS), not all schools are expected to do so. Arkansas law does not require public schools to teach preventative health services it is up to school boards to decide whether it is taught in their schools. If they decide to teach and provides SHS, abstinence must be stressed. The state is “to discourage ... sexual activity by students.”

Additionally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the HIV Surveillance Report, young people between the age of (13-2 ) account for an estimated 22% of all new HIV infections in the United States, and nearly half of the 20 million new STDs reported each year.

Teenage pregnancies can have signi¿cant consequences for individual women and their families. According to Arkansas Department of health reports, teen birth rates are highest among women ages 18-19 a 2018 report showed 6 .5 per 1,000 women became mothers in 2016—the highest teen birth rate in the country in 2016.

How and where children can get educated?

Schools can help increase student access to health services and education by providing adequate information and destigmatizing sex education for adolescents. Teens can also learn about SHS through their parents and local community clinics like Planned Parenthood.