Teaching comprehensive sex ed to thousands of teens when campuses are closed

When PPMM Education program manager, Leah C. realized this spring that the COVID-19 pandemic meant thousands of students would be switching to digital learning, she started working right away with school principals and teachers to help make it happen.

Our educators are among the most reliable, trusted providers of comprehensive sex ed in PPMM’s large California service area, and many school districts count on us to deliver. As one teacher told Leah: “It doesn’t matter how (students) get this information. It only matters that they do get the information because they need it.”

Leah teamed up with our education staff and school administrators to brainstorm about different sex ed digital learning experiences that would work for students before the school year ended. She tested 20 platforms before finding something that would be easy to use and appealing to young people.

It can be a challenge to engage with students via a screen in the same personal way our educators reach them in classrooms. But Leah said it has been very effective to have two PPMM educators onscreen during pre-recorded learning sessions, having a conversation about sex ed.

“It’s a new way to build a rapport, and it makes the digital experience more real,” she said. “Our pivot to a digital platform was truly successful because, through our feedback surveys, we were able to see that students were still able to take away valuable information that will help them in life as they develop and grow into adults.”

Students will remember that Planned Parenthood was there, no matter what, to help them learn about their bodies, consent, and having healthy relationships -- even though their school classrooms were closed.