Toolkit for Improving Family Planning Services in School Settings

The outreach strategies included below focus on steps that individuals who work in school settings can take, although some strategies are adaptable for health care organizations and providers outside of a school-based setting or those that are looking to work in schools.

Each outreach strategy listed below includes:

1. A brief description of the strategy
2. Case examples of schools, health centers, or organizations that have implemented the strategy
3. Reflection questions to guide teams and individuals on how to implement a similar strategy

Each outreach strategy varies in complexity, funding, and scope, and is adaptable based on context and resources. Programs can utilize staff in many different roles to oversee these outreach strategies. While health educators can take on many roles in a school or clinic, they often take on key roles for outreach. You are the expert of your setting, your health center, and/or your school. As you read, think about using these examples as ideas or prompts for brainstorming with your staff.

Before getting started, we encourage you to reflect on your outreach goals for sexual health services, what outreach strategies are currently working well, and where there are gaps. To aid this reflection, we provide a set of needs assessment questions designed to guide your thinking about existing outreach efforts. After you’ve read the outreach strategies, we provide a series of prompts, included at the end of this tool, to guide your thinking and set intentions about next steps.

Consider your organization’s goals for sexual health services and what is working well within your setting and your affiliated school(s) to engage students in services.

1. What are your current outreach strategies for sexual health services?
2. 1. Which of these are successful?
   2. Where is there room to improve?

Think about who is already doing sexual health work in the school(s) (e.g., health educators, health teachers, coaches, etc.) and consider gaps and opportunities you or other staff can fill.

1. Who in your SBHC or organization is the best person to provide sexual health services and/or health education?
2. 1. What percentage of their time do they devote to outreach? Should this percentage change?
   2. How many hours, weeks, or months do you want to dedicate to these activities?
   3. What school staff partnerships might help facilitate presentations about services in your SBHC or organization?

Consider groups of students that are missing from those you serve with existing outreach strategies (e.g., students who are truant, have less flexibility to be involved with extracurriculars, are new to the school, have cultural or language barriers, etc.).

1. What populations of students do you currently reach (if any) with your sexual health services and outreach strategies?
2. 1. What populations of students are you missing? Why are they missing?
   2. How can your program ensure that students you are missing are aware of the available sexual health services?
   3. What opportunities exist or can you develop to reach missing populations in particular?

Consider what barriers may stand in the way of implementing an outreach strategy in your setting or school.

1. What are the barriers to effectively reaching students in your school-based health setting and/or affiliated schools?
2. 1. Who may be resistant to outreach strategies to connect students with sexual health services?
   2. What are available resources (e.g., funding, people, space, time)?

You can view the Needs Assessment questions as a PDF form here.