Sustaining Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs in Schools: Needs and Barriers Identified by School Leaders.

BACKGROUND: To reduce teen pregnancy rates, prevention programs must be consistently available to large numbers of youth. However, prevention efforts have been historically conducted with little emphasis on ensuring program sustainability. This study examined the needs and barriers to sustaining teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programming in schools after grant funding has ended, as identified by school leadership. METHODS: A total of 11 qualitative interviews were conducted between June and September 2012 with middle school leaders from 11 schools involved in current implementation of a TPP program in South Carolina. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically coded. RESULTS: Identified needs and barriers to sustainability varied across schools. Common barriers to program sustainability included: lack of materials and supplies, insufficient funding (at the school and district level), lack of support and/or parental opposition, and other school/district priorities. School leaders also identified several needs to continue TPP programming, including: continued funding, trainings, outcome/effectiveness data to support the program, and regularly updated curriculum. CONCLUSION: Schools with greater perceived needs and barriers may be less likely to sustain. Knowledge gained through this research may be used to inform future interventions and sustainability planning efforts, allowing us to maximize prevention programming.

Using data to improve fidelity when implementing evidence-based programs.

In fall 2011, the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (SC Campaign), with funding from Office of Adolescent Health, began replicating an evidence-based curriculum, It's Your Game, Keep It Real in 12 middle schools across South Carolina. Fidelity of the curriculum was monitored by the use of lesson fidelity logs completed by curriculum facilitators and lesson observation logs submitted by independent classroom observers. These data were monitored weekly to identify possible threats to fidelity. The innovative model Fidelity Through Informed Technical Assistance and Training was developed by SC Campaign to react to possible fidelity threats in real time, through a variety of technical assistance modalities. Fidelity Through Informed Technical Assistance and Training guided the 55 hours of technical assistance delivered by the SC Campaign during the first year of It's Your Game, Keep It Real implementation to 18 facilitators across 12 SC middle schools, and achieved 98.4% curriculum adherence and a high quality of implementation scores.