About the Division of Adolescent and School Health

CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) is a unique source of support for HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention efforts in the nation’s schools. DASH provides funding and technical assistance that enables state and local education agencies to deliver HIV and STD prevention programs that are scientifically sound and grounded in the latest research on effectiveness.

DASH also plays a key role in working with state and local education and health agencies, national organizations, parents and teens to ensure that health and education activities support adolescent health, development, and learning. In particular, DASH focuses on ways to create safe and supportive environments so that all young people have the opportunity to learn and be healthy.

DASH is committed to its mission to promote environments where teens can gain fundamental health knowledge and skills, establish healthy behaviors for a lifetime, connect to health services, and avoid becoming pregnant or infected with HIV or STDs.

CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health‘s (DASH) Strategic Plan, Healthy Teens. Successful Futures: Maximizing Opportunities for Primary Prevention of HIV and STDs—Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2016–2020, articulates the vision, framework, and overarching goals and strategies that guide the division’s programmatic, research and surveillance efforts through 2020.

Given DASH’s mission, four strategic imperatives are highlighted in the strategic plan.

1. Take sexual health education to scale nationally to assure teens have access to information and skills development
2. Address confidentiality protections for teens to increase their use of sexual health services
3. Expand the evidence base regarding sexual and gender minority teen health to develop methods that decrease risk and increase protective factors
4. Integrate substance use prevention into HIV/STD prevention efforts for teens

These strategic imperatives offer the chance to accelerate progress toward DASH’s goal of maximizing opportunities for primary prevention of HIV/STD and pregnancy among young people.  As a prevention leader, DASH uses a public health approach, working through schools to increase the likelihood that the majority of teens in the U.S. will have the knowledge, skills, and resources to avoid becoming pregnant or infected with HIV or STDs.

View or download the DASH strategic plan and related materials:

• DASH Strategic Plan
• DASH Strategic Plan Overview Presentation
• DASH Strategic Plan Strategy Map
• DASH Indicators Baseline Report

CDC promotes the health and well-being of children and adolescents through schools, enabling them to become healthy and productive adults. CDC supports core school health functions by:

• Funding state health and education agencies, communities, and national partners
• Using the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model
• Supporting parent engagement
• Promoting health and academic success
• Investing in surveillance and epidemiology

The DASH 2015 Annual Report[PDF – 3M] provides a comprehensive description of the division’s activities and accomplishments during the year, features several key projects, and offers a glimpse into the future.