A photo of a teen in the kitchen and another of a teen and mom in bed

Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program

About the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program

This tiered, evidence-based program that provides competitive grants to a broad range of organizations and agencies is currently administered by the Office of Population Affairs (OPA). The TPP Program was initially funded in FY2010 at $110 million, and has been funded at $101 million since FY 2014. Each year, funding must be secured for the program. Up to 10% of TPP Program funds can be used for training and technical assistance, evaluation, and other program support. Of the remaining funds:

75% go to Tier 1 grants to replicate teen pregnancy prevention programs that have shown to be effective through rigorous evaluation.
25% go to Tier 2 grants to develop, replicate, refine, and rigorously evaluate additional models and innovative strategies to reduce teen pregnancy.

The TPP Program and the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) are complementary federal funding streams for teen pregnancy prevention education. Read more about the TPP Program and PREP here.

APPROPRIATIONS

FY 2023 (October 1, 2022 - September 30, 2023) - Status: In process

On March 28, President Biden released his fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget request, which proposes the following:

Increasing funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program from its current level of $101 million to $111 million.
Omitting funding for discretionary Sexual Risk Avoidance (also known as abstinence only until marriage) program.

Please see Power to Decide’s full statement on the President’s proposed FY 2023 budget.

As a reminder, the President’s budget is just the first step in the appropriations process; Congress ultimately decides what gets funded.

As that process begins to unfold, we’ll share what you can do to help ensure that the TPP Program and Title X get the funding they need to continue their critical work around the country. Check back for updates in April.

FY 2022 (October 1, 2021 - September 30, 2022) - Status: Complete

The latest: On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed H.R 2471, an omnibus appropriations bill to fund the federal government through fiscal year (FY 2022), which ends on September 30, 2022. Among other things, the bill provides level funding of $101 million for the TPP Program and $35 million for Sexual Risk Avoidance Education.

We are disappointed that this appropriations bill does not include a funding increase for the TPP Program. For more information about the bill, please see Power to Decide’s full statement.

Funding Opportunity Announcements

There are no open funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) related to teen pregnancy prevention at this time.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH THREATS TO THE TPP PROGRAM

Attempts to Cease Funding for FY2015-2019 Grantees

In July 2017, OAH notified TPP Program grantees that their five-year projects would end after year three (7/1/17 – 6/30/18). Year three, supported by FY 2017 funding, had already been appropriated.

The notices of shortened project periods were highly unusual, and in response, many members of Congress expressed concern about the abrupt decision to cut off TPP Program grants and highlighted a number of key questions about this decision. See letters from 37 Senators and 149 Representatives, a letter from 9 members of the Texas delegation, and our statement on these letters. Several Senators also raised questions about the decision to shorten grants period for the TPP Program (and the Pregnancy Assistance Fund grantees received one year grant awards instead of three as was indicated in the original funding announcement) during a confirmation hearing for the Assistant Secretary for Health. See updated key points on the TPP Program here and a list of national and local articles about the shortening of TPP Program grants.

In 2018, eight lawsuits (including a class action suit) were filed on behalf of TPP Program grantees. Five of the lawsuits, in courts in DC, Baltimore, Spokane, Seattle, as well as a class action lawsuit filed in DC, were decided in favor of the grantees. The June 1 decision in the class action suit covered the remaining grantees, including the three who had pending lawsuits. These rulings ordered HHS to accept and process any noncompeting continuation applications submitted by grantees included in these lawsuits, as if the agency had not shortened their awards. Note, this applies to all Tier 1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B projects. While the government filed notices of appeals in all five suits in August 2018, it subsequently dropped those appeals.

HHS Awards New Tier 1 and Tier 2 Grants

On April 20, 2018, HHS released two FOAs for the TPP Program (see Power to Decide’s statement here), and the Tier 1 and Tier 2 FOAs. The Tier 1 awards under these new FOAS were announced on July 11, 2019 and the Tier 2, previously on September 28, 2018.

For a history of the attacks on the TPP Program, as of mid-October 2018, see this brief. For a summary of the litigation related to the TPP program, click here.

HHS TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION EVIDENCE REVIEW

A call for studies is open through April 15, 2022, in order to update the Evidence Review with the latest studies of effectiveness.

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The HHS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evidence Review is an independent, systematic, and rigorous review of evaluation studies conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and managed by the HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (HHS' evidence and evaluation experts). The evidence review has identified a growing number of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program models that represent a variety of approaches.

The majority of State Personal Responsibility Education Program grantees use models identified by the evidence review. Tier 1 TPP Program grantees (FY 2010 - FY 2014 & FY 2015 - FY 2019) also used these models.

On April 23, 2018, HHS released updated findings for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evidence Review. Four more models have demonstrated positive impacts on at least one teen sexual risk behavior or reproductive health outcome—bringing the list of evidence-based program models to 48. Also, two models already on this list now have evidence of longer-term impacts and/or youth outcomes. You can see a handy summary here.

In November 2021, OPA released evidence of effectiveness for 7 new program models that resulted from TPP Tier 2 grantees. The results help to fill gaps in knowledge. Specifically, “. . . these TPP programs provide new research on specific types of innovative practices (e.g., using technology to deliver information, joint family programming) or specific populations and settings (e.g., LGBT+ students, rural areas), which can support greater equity in TPP programming.”

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evidence Review is included in the Results First Clearinghouse Database, a project of the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

FY 2020 to FY 2023 Budget Chart
Power to Decide's FY 2023 Appropriations Request Letter
Power to Decide's 2021-22 Federal Policy Agenda
2021 letter from more than 200 groups urging Congress to continue funding the TPP Program and PREP
Federal Funding Streams at a Glance
Power to Decide’s recommendations on how the Administration can advance reproductive well-being

TPP Program Specific Resources

In November 2021, OPA announced evidence of effectiveness of 7 new program models from TPP Tier 2 grantees. The results help to fill gaps in knowledge by providing insight into effective ways of engaging specific populations / setting, including Black and Latinx youth, non-exclusively heterosexual female youth, and youth in rural areas.
The TPP Program is featured as one of 20 success stories in the Bipartisan Policy Center's Evidence Works: Cases Where Evidence Meaningfully Informed Policy
Brief: The Trump Administration Deals a Blow to Evidence-Based Policy, brief by Ron Haskins and Andrea Kane, published by the Evidence-Based Policymaking Collaborative. Read the summary blog post here.
Kane / Haskins Amici Curiae Brief: "Friend of the court" brief filed in support of Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho et al in their appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding HHS' 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement
Report: Final one from the Bipartisan Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking cites the TPP Program as an example of a federal program “developing increasingly rigorous portfolios of evidence” (see page 94)
Factsheet: It's About Evidence: What You Need to Know About the TPP Program
Polling Data: Demonstrates widespread support for the TPP Program (and PREP)

State-specific resources

State data portal
State profiles (contain information on state policies and federal grants)
Public savings data resulting from the decline in teen pregnancy
State policy portal

Key Messages to Use in Your Outreach

The program has made vital contributions to the growing body of knowledge of what works for whom and under what circumstances to prevent teen pregnancy.
The TPP Program has been a gold-standard example of evidence-based policymaking—just the type of investment that independent experts and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for.
The September 2017 unanimously-agreed-to-report from the bipartisan Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking established by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray highlighted the TPP Program as an example of a federal program developing increasingly rigorous portfolios of evidence.
85% of adults (including 75% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats) favor maintaining federal funding for the TPP Program and PREP