Teenagers are having sex earlier than ever, often with multiple partners. And most teens do not consistently use condoms. These youth are often hard to reach for prevention and education efforts, and have limited access to health care and service-delivery systems. The sooner, the better. Schools alone can't do the job.
Some schools lack properly trained personnel.
Others refuse to discuss homosexuality. And many offer inadequate instruction on condom use. Although three-quarters of sex education curricula in the nation's schools mention condoms, only 9 percent include information about how to use them. For example, in Miami, a dropout prevention program in an urban neighborhood offers a peer education activity as a course for high school credit. In New York City, runaway youths in residential shelters who received intensive education, skills training and counseling sessions reported an increase in consistent condom use and a decrease in high-risk sexual behavior.