CHLP’s Teen SENSE, Community Partners Submit Sexual Health Care Recommendations to Washington, DC’s Child and Family Services Agency (2014)

On March 10, 2014, The Center for HIV Law and Policy’s Teen SENSE initiative and its community partners submitted a series of recommendations to Washington, DC’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) regarding sexual health care for youth in foster care. The document is the product of a comprehensive review of CFSA’s policies followed by community input. Specifically, these recommendations address the timing and content of health screenings and examinations for youth in foster care; sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV counseling, testing, and treatment; the content of sexual and reproductive health education programs and counseling; and the development of a staff training session on sexual and reproductive health care and on the rights and needs of LGBTQ youth in care.

These recommendations serve as the foundation of ongoing advocacy to ensure that CFSA’s policies and practices comply with prevailing standards of sexual health care for young people in state custody settings, and may serve as a model for similar efforts in other jurisdictions. Community partners Advocates for Justice and Education, Inc., AIDS United, Campaign to End AIDS, Community Education Group, DC Lawyers for Youth, Housing Works, Metro TeenAIDS, Whitman-Walker Health, The Women’s Collective, WORLD, Youth Court, and Betty Nyangoni, EdD reviewed, contributed to, and endorsed these recommendations.

This document, Recommendations to Government of the District of Columbia – Child and Family Services Agency on Administrative Issuances, Healthcare Quick Reference Guides, and Program Policies Related to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Programming for Youth in Foster Care, is available in the HIV Policy Resource Bank. For more information or to join the advocacy efforts of Teen SENSE and its partners in Washington, DC, contact Adrian Guzman at [email protected].