Second Chance Program: FY24 Reflections

FY24 was a busy year for the Second Chance program, with just over 2,000 students from 61 Colorado school districts and 150 schools enrolled in the program, and 70% of participating schools utilizing Second Chance as an alternative to suspension. 98.7% of the students who enrolled in Second Chance during FY24 were referred to Second Chance after violating tobacco policy on school grounds. The vast majority (82%) of students enrolled in FY24 were using an electronic vape product (JUUL, e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, vape pipes, vaping pens, e-hookahs, hookah pens) when they violated tobacco policy. The Second Chance program contains a robust pre- and post-survey targeted at gaining student perspectives and opinions before and after receiving education. In FY24, the pre-and post-survey results indicated positive trends in learning during the program. For example, there was an increase in the percentage of participants who responded “definitely yes” from the pre-survey to the post-survey when asked whether they believed the tobacco industry intentionally targets youth in their marketing tactics (pre-survey: 32.5%, post-survey: 58.81%). Additionally, we observed significant decreases between the pre- and post-surveys for participants answering “definitely yes” to the prompts, “most teenagers use tobacco products” (pre-survey: 30.88%, post-survey 17.55%) and, “most teenagers use vaping products” (pre-survey: 32.6%, post-survey: 18.89%). In both the pre- and post-survey, nearly 50% of participants indicated a desire to completely stop using tobacco. Visit Secondchancetobacco.org to learn more.

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