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v. Outline how the state intends to establish goals and take action to prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with special emphasis on teenage pregnancies.
California employs a multi-pronged approach to preventing adolescent pregnancy by promoting comprehensive sexual health education, increasing access to reproductive and sexual health services, and supporting reproductive life planning.
For young individuals under the age of 18, strategies include primary and secondary pregnancy prevention, sexual health education, and linkage to clinical services.
The numerical objective is based on the birth rate for individuals aged 15-17 years old. For all individuals of reproductive age, the strategy is promotion of pregnancy planning, healthy relationships, and partner involvement.
CDSS and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) continue to explore various strategies to promote pregnancy planning, prevent adolescent pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, support formation of healthy relationships, encourage declarations of paternity, and promote healthy co- parenting, including involvement of fathers and same- sex parents.
California programs which may be involved in these efforts include Cal-Learn, CalWORKs Family Planning Information Project, the Adolescent Family Life Program (AFLP), California Personal Responsibility Education Program (CA PREP), Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) Program, and the Information and Education (I&E) Program.
Highlights from these efforts are embodied in the programs/efforts described below:
• Cal-Learn is a mandatory program that helps pregnant or parenting teens who receive CalWORKs/TANF graduate from high school. Cal-Learn teens receive additional case management and a yearly financial bonus for earning a satisfactory high school report card. • CA PREP works to promote and improve the sexual and reproductive health of high-need youth populations (10-19 years old) in California through implementation of evidence-based sexual health education curricula and linkage to clinical services. In program year 2016-17, I&E and CA PREP provided comprehensive sexual health education to 17,584 youth in high need areas across the state. • The I&E program aims to educate young people (12-19 years old) about sexual and reproductive health through evidence-based or evidence-informed curricula; to provide information on eligibility and access to reproductive health care services, and to engage local communities to promote adolescent health.