About this archived opportunity

Early tobacco prevention and education is important because tobacco use generally starts in youth. Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development. Implementing tobacco-free school policies are an important first step in addressing youth tobacco and vaping use. Evidence shows that comprehensive school-based programs that include tobacco free policies, combined with community and mass-media efforts, can effectively prevent or postpone the onset of smoking by 20 to 40 percent among U.S. teens. (Surgeon General’s Report “Reducing Tobacco Use,” 2001). Tobacco-free school policies: 1) protect the health of youth and staff by reducing exposure to secondhand smoke; 2) help to establish and support tobacco-free norms; and 3) prevent and postpone smoking by youth. In 2023, according to the California Youth Tobacco Survey (CYTS), 21.6% of California high school respondents had ever used any tobacco product, and 7.3% currently used tobacco. Vapes were the most commonly used tobacco product among high school respondents (18.3% ever use, 5.9% current use), regardless of gender identity, race/ethnicity, and grade. This represents an unacceptably high number of approximately 112,925 students who reported either having ever used e-cigarettes or having used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. Unfortunately, this also reflects a troubling upward trend in vaping use from the 2022 CYTS in which 17.6% ever used e-cigarettes versus 18.3% in 2023 and 5.6% that used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days in 2022 versus 5.9% in 2023. More significantly, co-use of tobacco and marijuana among youth has become common with vaping devices. 4.9% of high school students currently use both tobacco and marijuana. The survey also found that youth who rated their mental health as poor or fair had a higher prevalence of current tobacco use (14.8% and 7.2%, respectively) than those who reported their mental health as good to excellent (5.9%). Local prevalence rates may vary greatly from statewide prevalence rates. For example, rates in rural areas tend to be significantly higher than those in urban areas. Rates may also vary among different populations of students in the same district. For example, tobacco-use rates tend to be significantly higher among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students than they are among straight/cisgender students. This highlights the need for grantees to participate in regular surveys such as the CHKS to track local prevalence rates over time and to ensure that special needs among priority populations are identified and addressed in programming. For more information about how CHKS data can be used in TUPE program development, please see the California School Climate, Health, and Learning Survey (CalSCHLS) Annual Training 2024–25 web page at https://calschls.org/videos/1012474131/.