Introduction
Research Questions
- How did grant recipients operate and support SRAE programs?
- What were the characteristics of SRAE programs?
- Whom did SRAE programs serve?
- How did youth respond to the SRAE programs?
The goal of the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) program is to educate adolescents on voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activity with the goal of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and achieving a healthy future. SRAE is administered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
All SRAE grant recipients are required to submit performance measures data to FYSB. The data provide systematic information about program operations and outcomes for all SRAE grant recipients, their provider organizations, the programs they operate, and the youth they serve. The performance measures help answer the following questions:
- How did grant recipients operate and support SRAE programs?
- What were the characteristics of SRAE programs?
- Whom did SRAE programs serve?
- How did youth respond to the SRAE programs?
Purpose
This fact sheet summarizes findings based on performance measures submitted by SRAE grant recipients for 2023—2024.
Key Findings and Highlights
- In 2023—2024 SRAE funded 190 grants and 490 program providers. Providers operated 678 programs that served 324,529 youth during the period.
- The program models that served the most youth were Choosing the Best, Real Essentials, and Love Notes.
- SRAE grant recipients must address each of the six required A—F topics. The performance measures break two of these into subtopics for a total of eight, and over three-quarters of programs reported addressing all eight topics.
- Nine in ten participants attended SRAE programming during the school day.
- Most youth participants (83 percent) completed at least 75 percent of the intended programming hours.
- Over 20 percent of high-school age and older youth reported having ever had sex before starting SRAE programming.
- At program exit, over half of high-school age and older youth planned to abstain from sex as a result of participating in SRAE.
- At program exit, most youth reported positive perceptions of the SRAE programs.
Methods
This fact sheet is based on measures SRAE grant recipients submitted for 2023—2024. Grant recipients submit data on SRAE performance measures at four levels: (1) grant, (2) provider, (3) program, and (4) participant. Data are collected from entry and exit surveys administered to individual participants, and those results are combined at the program level for submission to FYSB twice a year. Analyses in this fact sheet are based on combined findings across grant recipients, providers, programs, and participants.
Grant recipients use a web-based system to submit performance measures to FYSB. Performance measures on structure, cost, and support for program implementation are submitted annually. Other measures—such as attendance, reach, and dosage, and measures of youth participants’ characteristics and experiences in SRAE —are submitted twice a year.
Citation
Gemignani, Josefina, and Lara Hulsey (2025). SRAE Performance Measures Fact Sheet: 2023—2024. OPRE Report #2025-159, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- SRAE:
- Sexual Risk Avoidance Education
- FYSB:
- Family and Youth Services Bureau
- A-F Topics:
- Grant recipients were required to incorporate each of the six required A-F topics, which the performance measures break two of these into sub-topics, for a total of eight: self-regulation, goal setting, healthy relationships, refraining from non-marital sexual activity, success sequence for poverty prevention, youth risk behaviors, sexual coercion, and dating violence.