Adolescent Health: 

What Works in Schools

Safe and Supportive School Environments

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent 

and School Health (DASH) has established an evidence-based approach 

schools can implement to help prevent HIV, STDs, and unintended pregnancy 

among adolescents. It includes quality health education, systems that 

connect students to health services, and safer and more supportive school 

environments. This info brief focuses on how schools can promote safe and 

supportive environments by improving students’ connections to schools and 

increasing the support they receive from parents. 

What are safe and supportive school 

environments?

Creating safe and supportive environments (SSE) emphasizes aspects 

of the school environment that encourage students to be more 

engaged in their school life and feel connected to important adults at 

school and at home. Connecting students to their schools and families 

is an important protective factor that can reduce students’ risk for 

human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted diseases 

(STDs), and unintended pregnancy. Protective factors such as feeling 

connected, help reduce high-risk substance use*

 and mental health 

issues, and help keep students from committing or being victims of 

violence. These are behaviors and experiences that are associated 

with sexual risk and poor academic outcomes. 

School environments that are safe and supportive are successful at 

connecting adolescents to a network of caring peers and adults, 

including parents, other primary caregivers, and teachers. Promoting 

SSE can be particularly helpful for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 

and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, who are more likely to be bullied at 

school and may lack family support at home. 

Strengthening school and family environments can have substantial and long-term impacts for students. 

These environments create an important foundation for the other strategies in DASH’s approach—sexual 

health education and sexual health services—to be more effective.

*

High-risk substance use is any use by adolescents of substances with a high risk of adverse outcomes (i.e., injury, criminal justice 

involvement, school dropout, loss of life). This includes misuse of prescription drugs, use of illicit drugs (i.e., cocaine, heroin, 

methamphetamines, inhalants, hallucinogens, or ecstasy), and use of injection drugs (i.e., drugs that have a high risk of infection of 

blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis).

@CDC_DASH

www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth

Published 2020
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Adolescent Health: What Works in Schools

Safe and Supportive School Environments

How does promoting safe and supportive school 

environments work?

Schools, families, and communities should work together to build a safe environment for youth at school and 

at home. Activities to improve school environments should aim to promote three protective factors:

1. School connectedness, which is the belief held by 

students that adults and peers in the school care about 

their learning and about them as individuals

2. Parental monitoring, which refers to parental knowledge 

of adolescents’ companions, whereabouts, and activities, 

as well as enforcement of rules, particularly about friends 

and dating

3. Parent-adolescent communication, both generally and 

specifically about sex.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Reinforcing positive behavior 

through praise and establishing 

rules, routines, and expectations 

are classroom management 

techniques that promote higher 

levels of school connectedness.

What are the benefits to promoting safe and supportive 

school environments?

Studies show that protective factors like 

providing SSE can reduce health risk behaviors 

related to HIV and STDs in adolescents, such as, 

encouraging condom use and delaying sexual 

initiation, as well as lowering the likelihood 

of substance use, violence, suicidal thoughts 

or attempts, and pregnancy. Adolescent 

connections to family and school during middle 

school and high school are also related to 

numerous positive outcomes in adulthood, 

including: 

y Fewer sexual partners and STD diagnoses

y Reduced emotional distress and suicidal 

ideation

y Lower likelihood of being a victim of or 

committing violence

y Less prescription drug use

y Higher likelihood of attending and graduating from college.
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Adolescent Health: What Works in Schools

Safe and Supportive School Environments

What does promoting safe and supportive school 

environments look like in action?

Schools can promote safe and supportive environments by:

y Providing professional development for teachers, including 

those who teach sexual health education, on classroom 

management techniques

y Providing professional development for all school staff on 

policies and practices that support all youth, including 

LGBTQ youth

y Implementing school-based positive youth development 

programs, including mentorship or service learning programs, 

or connecting students to these types of programs in their 

community

y Establishing and enhancing student-led clubs that support 

LGBTQ youth

y Sharing information and resources with parents or other primary caregivers about positive parenting 

practices, including how to talk with adolescents, especially about sex.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

When communicating 

with parents, find the best 

method (e.g., emails, letters, 

online portals) that suits the 

community. Find out whether 

materials need to be translated 

into other languages. 

Creating safe and supportive 

environments is particularly 

important for LGBTQ students. 

There are more schools across 

states with a gay-straight alliance 

(GSA)—up from 23% in 2008 to 

40% in 2018.

Source: 2018 School Health Profiles

For More 

Information

Learn more about promoting safe and supportive school environments at 

www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/programguidance.

Check out CDC tools and resources for promoting protective factors at www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/protective.

Read additional info briefs in the Adolescent Health: What Works in Schools series at 

www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/whatworks.