AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Teen pregnancy rates in Central Texas schools are leading to a change in sex education programs, school officials said.
Texas has received more funds than any other state for high school abstinence-only program funding but the student pregnancy rate increased 57 percent since the 2005-06 school year and the rates of sexually transmitted diseases are also climbing, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported Sunday.
The Austin school district and others in the region are moving toward "abstinence-plus," a program that stresses abstinence from sexual activity, but also provides information about birth control.
"We mainly did it because of our pregnancy rate," Whitney Self, lead teacher for health and physical education at the Hays Consolidated Independent School District, said. "We don't think abstinence-only is working."
Federal funding for promoting teen abstinence is drying up as the Obama administration shifts money from abstinence promotion to strategies aimed at lowering teen pregnancies. One of two abstinence programs expired June 30 and another will end in 2010.
