Schools Lag Amid Gains On D.C. HIV Report Card

Marks on HIV testing and condom distribution rose.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

"We're not choosing one category over others to focus on," Hader said this week. She expressed general satisfaction with the latest appraisal. "It helps us to have another eye on what we're doing, to give us feedback."

The other top score went to the Department of Corrections. About 75 percent of inmates at the D.C. jail are screened on arrival, in the broadest testing and counseling program of any city agency. Starting in January, those who are HIV-positive will be given a 28-day supply of medications on discharge so their treatment is not interrupted. The two initiatives are "at the forefront of the nation," Appleseed's report said.

"Enormous progress has been made," agreed Susan Galbraith, director of the nonprofit Our Place DC, which assists women who have been incarcerated.

Appleseed has heard from some who think its marks are too high. The report would have flunked the schools outright, Appleseed Executive Director Walter Smith said, except for assurances that change was imminent. Smith's blunt explanation for the inaction to date: "It simply wasn't made a high priority."

In a statement last night, Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee acknowledged the system's long-standing failure. "Going forward," she said, it is "committed to implementing comprehensive health curriculum that includes instruction on HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases." The school board is scheduled to vote tomorrow night on the overall standards that would be the initial step toward her goal.

Youth advocates say the lack of education has perpetuated myths about the virus. Prime among them: that HIV is exclusively a gay disease that won't endanger teens. Khadijah Tribble, executive director of Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care, recalls her recent work in a Ward 7 collaborative.

"The young people there did not get any consistent information in the public schools, and they did not get it from other places, either -- churches, home, the community -- which I think is a travesty," she said.

Appleseed intends to continue its report cards, with its next update in the spring. Smith said it will look for more coordination among agencies and outspoken leadership by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).

"The city is not going to get a grip on this epidemic until it starts getting all A's," Smith said. "It's got to pull out all the stops."