Focus groups and interviews in three Chicago Public Schools piloting sexual health services linkage efforts identified two central challenges—integrating services into school culture and addressing stigma/privacy—and informed the development of a referral toolkit for district-wide professional development.
Key Findings
Results
Stakeholders identified integrating and coordinating sexual health services into school culture as a central challenge.
Study conducted across three high schools piloting sexual health services linkage efforts in Chicago Public Schools
Suggested strategies included increasing communication among school staff members and parents
Stakeholders recommended integrating providers into the school ecosystem to address coordination challenges
Data were collected via focus groups and interviews, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Atlas.ti
Results
Stigma and privacy concerns around seeking sexual health services were identified as a second central challenge.
Strategies suggested included offering more than sexual health services to reduce stigma associated with seeking them
Maintaining confidentiality and minimizing staff knowledge of service utilization were recommended approaches
Increasing staff capacity to meet students' needs and reduce staff discomfort was identified as a key strategy
Partnering with students to disseminate information about service availability and promote utilization was also recommended
Results
A referral Toolkit documenting suggested strategies and recommendations was developed from the formative research findings.
The Toolkit was developed based on stakeholder-articulated challenges and strategies from focus groups and interviews
The Toolkit is currently being used to inform ongoing professional development for school staff across the Chicago Public Schools district
The Toolkit focuses on how to connect young people to sexual health services
Lessons learned from the development process are reported along with implications for other schools, districts, and the field
Background
Linking adolescent students to sexual health services has been recommended to promote overall adolescent health and wellbeing, with school-level support identified as necessary.
Support at the school level is described as needed to develop service linkages, particularly in large, urban districts
The study was situated in Chicago Public Schools, a large urban district
Three high schools served as pilot sites for sexual health services linkage efforts
What This Means
This research examined how Chicago public high schools can better connect students to sexual health services. Researchers conducted focus groups and interviews with stakeholders at three pilot high schools and identified two main barriers: first, the difficulty of incorporating sexual health service referrals into the existing school culture and coordinating among staff, parents, and outside providers; and second, the stigma and privacy concerns that discourage students from seeking these services. Participants offered practical strategies for each barrier, such as better staff communication, integrating health providers into the school community, protecting student confidentiality, and involving students themselves in spreading the word about available services.
Based on these findings, the research team developed a Toolkit that documents the identified strategies and recommendations. This Toolkit is now being used to train school staff across the Chicago Public Schools district on how to help students access sexual health services. The study highlights that simply making services available is not enough — schools need deliberate strategies to reduce stigma and ensure staff feel comfortable and equipped to connect students to care.
This research suggests that formative work involving input from students, staff, and other school community members is valuable for designing practical tools that can be scaled across large urban school districts. The lessons reported may be useful for other schools and districts looking to improve adolescent access to sexual health services.
Jarpe-Ratner E, Altman L, Schnabel A, Reid B, Marshall B, Matias K, et al.. (2025). Formative research and development of a referral toolkit for sexual health services linkages within chicago public high schools.. Evaluation and program planning. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2025.102540