FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 10, 2001

CONTACT: Marcia Papst
Choosing the Best Publishing
1-800-774-BEST
770-803-3100
mpapst@ctbpublishing.com

New Figures Show Abstinence Emphasis Working

ATLANTA – Three years after a major emphasis on abstinence education was introduced in Georgia schools, new statistics show a decline in teen pregnancies from middle school and high school students, the president of one of the leading abstinence education programs says.

The number of teen pregnancies among youngsters attending upper elementary and middle schools, ages 10-14, declined 12 percent from 1997 through 1999, according to Bruce Cook of Choosing the Best, a non-profit group that provides abstinence-focused sex education and training to encourage healthy relationships.

Cook, citing new figures released by the Georgia Department of Human Resources Department of Public Health, added:

• There was a 13 percent drop in teen pregnancies among high school students ages 15-17.
• When compared to national trends from 1997 to 1998, the number of births to Georgia teens aged 10-17 declined 7 percent – almost twice the national decline of 4 percent.

In Muscogee County in Columbus, Georgia, a unique middle school Choosing the Best program that focused on quality of teacher training, parental involvement with student-parent homework assignments and the use of Choosing the Best in all middle schools, reduced teen pregnancies 38 percent from 1997 to 1999, Cook said.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment to see this kind of decline in teen pregnancies in our state directly related to the abstinence effort in our schools over the past three years,” said state Senator Susan Cable (R-Macon), who served on the 1993 Governor’s Sex Education Task Force, which established sex education guidelines in Georgia.

“This is great news, and shows that programs will work that encourage our young people to abstain from at-risk sexual behavior,” Cook said. “The more teens clearly understand the benefits to abstinence until marriage and the risks of premarital sexual behavior the more they will make the right choices.”

In Georgia, abstinence-focused sex education was established based on guidelines adopted by the State Board of Education in 1994 to “emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage”.

Since 1998, the Governor’s Office of Child and Youth Coordinating Council (CYCC) has distributed approximately $4.2 million in Title V Grants throughout the state for community and school-based abstinence-focused programs.

Choosing the Best Middle School Program has been used in 41 Georgia school districts. Choosing the Best LIFE, a new high school program has been selected by 19 school district curriculum directors, representing 40 percent of the ninth grade students in Georgia, to be considered for implementation this fall.

Choosing the Best provides curricula, resources and training to more than 2,000 schools in 40 states. The goal of the organization is to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among young people. Cook, a Harvard MBA, had developed management-training programs for executives, before founding Choosing the Best.