Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance
The report indicates that school-based physical activity may help improve students' grades and test scores and positively affect other factors that influence academic achievement. The report also concludes that adding time during the school day for physical activity does not appear to take away from academic performance.
Resource: 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Results
This survey monitors six types of health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults. The 2015 release includes data from the 2015 National YRBS and YRBS data from 37 state and 19 large urban school district.
Resource: Youth Online
This data access application allows users to analyze national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data from 1991 to 2015. Researchers and other professionals can use this resource to filter and sort YRBSS data on the basis of race/ethnicity, sex, grade, sexual orientation, sex of sexual contacts, or site; and create customized tables, maps, and graphs, and perform statistical tests by site and health topic.
Resource: Parent Engagement
This webpage provides an overview of parent engagement in schools, a promising protective factor that has been linked to better student behavior, higher academic achievement, and enhanced social skills. It also features fact sheets and other resources on parent engagement for school districts, school administrators, teachers, other school staff, parents, and families.
Youth Advisory Councils
Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) provide ongoing advice and support to school districts on policies and practices that affect students. This webpage provides a detailed overview of Youth Advisory Councils (YACs). It describes the role YACs play in improving the schools and communities they serve, discusses how they can use data to make decisions and create action plans, and outlines the structure of a YAC.
Beyond Addiction: Understanding and Treating Substance Abuse in Young People
This report series from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth provides an overview on substance abuse in youth and young adults. Find information on how drug use can affect the teen brain, how the development of the teen brain makes young people susceptible to trying drugs, the benefits and things to be aware of when hiring youth workers in substance abuse recovery, and some best-known evidence-based practices for treating adolescent substance abuse.
Don't Call Them Dropouts
A report from America’s Promise Alliance encourages readers to think differently about youth who have left school, suggesting a change in terminology, from “dropouts” to “nongraduates” or students who have had “interrupted enrollment.” As this article explains, youth voices are featured prominently in the report, which also highlights factors that influence students to leave school and the supports that can help them to return to and remain in school.
Online Sexual Health Resources
The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth released this list of recommended resources on sexually transmitted diseases, including information geared specifically to teens and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.
5 Tips for Providing Trauma-Informed Sex Education
This article highlights the work of two researchers who are pioneering changes in sex education that bridge the gap between sex education and trauma-informed care by better understanding how sex education could be more sensitive to students’ traumatic experiences. This article also offers tips, based on this research, for implementing a trauma informed approach to sex education.
Guidance: Education Department Reiterates — Title I Funding Can Be Used to Serve Homeless Students
This article explains the guidance provided in a recent “Dear Colleague” letter (PDF, 4 pages) issued by the Department of Education which explains how school districts can use Title I funds to help children and youth experiencing homelessness. Some examples of ways districts can use the funds are to transport homeless students to and from school, pay the salaries of staff who work with homeless youth, and to generally meet the needs of these students.