The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) is one of the largest federally funded programs designed to address adolescent pregnancy and prepare youth for successful transition to adulthood. PREP grantees have flexibility in designing and implementing programs, provided they adhere to certain requirements specified in the legislation, including educating youth on at least three of six adulthood preparation subjects (APSs): adolescent development, healthy life skills, educational and career success, parent-child communication, financial literacy, and healthy relationships. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief offers guidance to grantees who want to or already address financial literacy in their PREP program.

This brief summarizes a recent report about the PREP program, entitled “The Personal Responsibility Education Program: Launching a Nationwide Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Effort.” The report documented key decisions made by state grantees about the design of their PREP programs. Data was collected through telephone interviews with state grantee officials in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) was authorized by Congress to reduce teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and associated risk behaviors. Grantees across the country had flexibility in how they would implement their programs. This report is the first report from the PREP evaluation sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research. Authors interviewed State grantee officials to document the program decisions made across 44 States and Washington DC in designing the program. Among the key findings, researchers found that many of the programs are evidence-based and targeting high-risk youth. Additionally, States have developed their programs in different ways to educate on abstinence and contraception. The evaluation will include an additional round of interviews in 2014, performance management data analysis, and an analysis of program impacts using random assignment across four to five sites.