In an effort to reduce teen pregnancy in a pocket of D.C. where that problem has persisted, the city and a New York-based company are investing $400,000 to enroll 80 public charter school fifth-graders in a radically different curriculum.
Rather than just teaching sex education, instructors devote an hour during the school day and time every other Saturday to instruction on things such as money management and self-expression for what officials say is a more holistic approach.
The Carrera program is one D.C. agencies have tried for more than a decade to bring to the nation’s capital, according to Brenda Rhodes Miller, executive director of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
The difference now is that the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation has partnered with the Children’s Aid Society and the Carrera group to chip in the necessary dollars to launch the program.
Funding pays for a handful of staff members permanently stationed at Arts and Technology Academic Public Charter School in Ward 7.
Kimberly Boyd-Lewis, director of special projects for the trust, said as of last month all 80 fifth-graders had agreed to take part. If successful, the program could be expanded in coming years, she said. But there are no detailed plans for funding the program in other locations in the city.
The program has seven components: daily homework and academic assistance, job club, self-expression, lifetime sports, sexuality lessons, mental health counseling and intervention and medical services.
For instance, in the job club portion of the program, students are given $25 to open a bank account. Then they are given regular stipends to put into the account so that they learn money management. The self-expression
component makes time for students to engage in music, dance and drama.
InMiller’s opinion, such a program is sorely needed in D.C. Ward 7, second only to Ward 8 in teen pregnancy.
Citywide, D.C.’s teen pregnancy rate is 64.4 pregnancies per 1,000 residents, and the national average is 51.2.
Jennifer Halsey, the mother of a fifth-grader at Arts and Technology, said her impression of the program is that it’s been well received by parents and that students are not losing out on traditional subjects such as math and science along the way.
“It’s really telling kids that there are other things to do in life besides having children in your teen years, that you’ll have a much more vibrant life with so many more choices,” she said.
