The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:
(a) Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood is a problem with significant social, medical, educational, and economic consequences to the teen parent and child, her family, and the State of California.
(b) In an attempt to address the problems of pregnant and parenting adolescents, the Governor, in 1985, created the Adolescent Family Life Demonstration Program, that was designed to bring pregnant and parenting teenagers into programs that provide services of demonstrated cost benefit and effectiveness by organizing networks of local agencies focused on providing services to adolescents and ensuring the most timely and effective utilization of services.
(c) Independent evaluations indicate that the program has been successful and effective in achieving its intended goals of providing pregnant adolescents with prenatal care, reducing the incidence of low birthweight babies born to adolescent mothers, keeping or reenrolling pregnant and parenting adolescents in school, and reducing the rate of repeat teen pregnancies.
(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 8. Effective January 1, 1996.)