Sex Education Program That Teaches Financial Consequences Wins Award

The “Parenting: It’s a Life” program, a sex education program used by many Iowa middle and high schools, will receive a 2013 Excellence in Program Awareness award on August 5 from the Virginia-based National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA). Iowa State University’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies Department, the Iowa Department of Human Services Child Support Recovery Unit, and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office collaborated to develop the program.

Whereas traditional sex education classes addresses reproductive biology, contraception, and STDs, “Parenting: It’s a Life” focuses on the financial realities of teen pregnancy. Program Coordinator Kate Goudy-Haht explained that most teens did not realize that 40 percent of teen parents and their children lived in poverty or that raising a child through the age of 18 could cost more than $100,000.

Goudy-Haht stated the NCSEA award recognized the program’s strong partnerships with state agencies and Facebook and Web site outreach efforts with students and teachers. The program also created a monthly e-newsletter—sent mostly to family consumer science teachers, counselors, and health teachers—and distributes an informational poster to all Iowa middle and high schools.

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