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Hawaii teens are having less sex than their national counterparts, but most of the ones who do are not using protection.

As a result, they are sharing sexually transmitted diseases and getting pregnant at higher rates than their peers, contributing to the high school dropout rate and costing the state millions in support services. Reproductive health advocates say poor enforcement of sexual education policies probably contributes to the rate of unsafe sex among teens.

To make matters worse, the budget squeeze in recent years has been gradually extinguishing not only education services, but also the programs to support pregnant and parenting teens.

About 44 percent of high schoolers in Hawaii said they have had sex, compared with 46 percent of high schoolers nationally, according to the latest , conducted every two years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of those who had sexual intercourse, more than half — 52 percent — did not use a condom, versus 39 percent nationally.

“That is the saddest fact,” said Katie Reardon, director of government relations and public affairs at . “Hawaii’s rate of teens having sexual intercourse is lower than the rest of the country, and we know from the (CDC) survey that kids are engaging in sex at a later age — which is great — but they’re not doing so safely.”

Hawaii consistently ranks among the top third of states with the worst teen pregnancy problems, said Judy Clark, executive director of the , a coalition of more than 50 agencies and organizations serving youth.

“We are usually ranked anywhere from 12th to 17th, and we’re usually ranked sixth or seventh for the appearance of chlamydia,” she said.

The latest data show that Hawaii has the rate of teen pregnancy, and the rate of chlamydia, the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the United States.

Policy vs. Enforcement

The alarming data are not because of a lack of policies, but loose implementation of the sex education requirements that exist, said Reardon of Planned Parenthood.

“There absolutely is a policy, but there’s no policy that actually gets enforced in a really consistent way,” she said.

Hawaii’s Board of Education that when sexual education is taught in schools, it is to be abstinence-based, medically accurate and comprehensive. Health education is a required course in certain grades, and it is supposed to include sexual health education, Reardon said.

“But because sex education isn’t a tested subject matter, those requirements don’t get enforced in the same way other curriculum requirements are,” she said. “Because it’s up to the principals, there’s not a lot of consistency and the (Department of Education) has expressed that it is difficult for them to enforce.”

The board’s policy allows teaching about contraception, but it the distribution of condoms and other birth control devices at school and school-related functions. It mandates that the Department of Education teach abstinence as the best way to prevent “unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.” Numerous officials with the Department of Education declined to comment for this report, including to confirm the department’s own requirements.

But nearly one in five Hawaii high schoolers said they had never been taught about AIDS or HIV infection, according to the CDC survey.

That is a product of some schools providing youth with very effective sex education in their health classes, and some schools all but eliminating it from the curriculum, said Clark, the youth services director.

Because its sex education policies are not yet state law, Hawaii is by the internationally recognized among the 32 states that have some form of mandated sex education. But Reardon said the school system’s requirements are solid.

“The Board of Education’s policy of abstinence-based, comprehensive and medically-accurate sexual education is a really great policy,” she said. “I think the problem is that it’s really hard to enforce and make sure that schools are consistently providing curricula that not only comply with state rules but also are effective.”

The education department’s abstinence-based approach to reproductive health is in stark contrast to the state’s approach to abortions for juveniles. Female minors aged 14 and older are allowed to terminate pregnancies without having to .

Despite having one of the nation’s most liberal abortion laws, teenage girls in Hawaii gave birth in 2008, according to the CDC — slightly higher than the national average.¹ About 2,300 of the state’s 19,000 births that year were to teens. Nearly three-quarters of those teen pregnancies were among Asian/Pacific Islanders. (Read more here).²

Teen pregnancy prevention topped a list of issues formulated by teens during last year’s Children and Youth Day at the Hawaii Capitol, Clark told Civil Beat.

The state Legislature‘s bipartisan Keiki Caucus responded this year by submitting to hold the Department of Education more accountable for enforcing the existing sex ed policy. The bill, which was approved by the Senate Tuesday, would require the department to provide “medically accurate” sexuality health education in all of its elementary, middle, high and alternative schools. It would also require the department to keep a current list of curricula that meet its sex education criteria.

Hawaii Cutting Services For Teen Parents

Despite the worrisome teen STD and pregnancy numbers, government departments are squeezing off the money supply to education and teen parenting programs. Meanwhile, the state is expected to improve graduation rates and close achievement gaps, as promised in its successful Race to the Top grant application.

The Department of Education, which used to make special allocations for optional teen parenting courses, began in 2009 requiring schools to pay for them out of their own .

In 2008, 40 schools received more than $80,000 from the department for the elective pregnant and parenting teens course, called GRADS (Graduation, Reality and Dual Role Skills). The adults in charge of the course actively sought out pregnant teens and helped direct them to the resources and social services they needed.

Waipahu High School was one that got rid of its elective GRADS course almost as soon as money got tight.

“We have one of the highest rates of pregnancy in the state, and this is the second year that we have had no services for them,” said Barbara Irwin, a family and consumer sciences teacher at the school. She oversaw the GRADS program for 10 years, and helped anywhere from 50 to 60 students a year.

“That first round of budget cuts came through and our program was cut,” she said.

Even in schools that have kept GRADS, enrollment has dropped significantly because schools can’t afford to be as proactive about seeking the students who could benefit from the program. For example, Farrington High School had 25 students in the course two years ago, and this year only enrolled six, according to the Department of Education. A total of only 71 students are enrolled in the course at the 36 schools still offering it, down from 346 students two years ago. Twenty-three of those schools have zero students in the course this year.

Although the school system isn’t the only venue for education and support programs, the Department of Human Services on April 1 will with dozens of agencies that work to prevent teen pregnancy and help parenting teens, both in and after school.

“Prevention programs tend to be the first to be cut when money gets tight,” said Clark, the Hawaii Youth Services Network director. “We are probably going to see the teen pregnancy problem get a lot worse now, because without DHS funds, most of these agencies will be serving fewer youth at fewer sites.”

$22 Million Per Year

The Department of Education does not keep data linking teen pregnancies and academics, but national studies have established that teen pregnancy comes with a steep social and economic price.

“The costs of teen childbearing have negative effects on the life prospects of teen mothers and their families as well as the public’s investment in healthcare, child welfare and the criminal justice system. Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school, remain unmarried, and live in poverty. Their children are more likely to be born at low birth weight, grow up poor, live in single-parent households, experience abuse and neglect, enter the child welfare system, become teen parents, and be incarcerated.” – Source: The nonprofit, nonpartisan

All of those results come with both direct and indirect financial impacts. Teen pregnancies in Hawaii cost the state’s taxpayers about per year, according to the advocacy group. Between 1991 and 2004 Hawaii’s 25,300 teenage births cost taxpayers more than $400 million. Nationally, teen pregnancies cost taxpayers an estimated $9.1 billion per year.

The annual cost for teenage childbearing in Hawaii is , the National Campaign estimates. For teenagers 17 or younger, the cost is more than quadruple that.

The economic data are so persuasive, Clark said, that in recent years the has incorporated teen pregnancy prevention as one of the keys to helping families maintain and stabilize their incomes.

Meanwhile, 10 agencies in the Hawaii Youth Services Network have received a $5 million grant to develop evidence-based pregnancy prevention programs.