{"id":265552,"date":"2026-08-14T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T22:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265552\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T22:00:07","slug":"pennsylvania-health-secretary-debra-bogen-highlights-free-period-products-program-in-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265552\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania health secretary Debra Bogen highlights free period products program in Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SCRANTON, Pa. (WBNG) &#8212; Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen visited West Scranton High School on Thursday, Aug. 13, to highlight the state\u2019s ongoing program providing <a href=\"https:\/\/pacast.com\/m?p=29796\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/pacast.com\/m?p=29796\">free menstrual products<\/a> in schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">National studies from Period.org show that roughly one in four girls <a href=\"https:\/\/period.org\/uploads\/2025-State-of-the-Period-Study.pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/period.org\/uploads\/2025-State-of-the-Period-Study.pdf\">struggle to afford period products<\/a>, with 23% missing school due to a lack of access.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cNot having access to period products should never lead to a missed day of school,\u201d Bogen said. \u201cWhen a student is forced to stay home because she lacks basic health essentials, it doesn\u2019t just derail one lesson\u2014it creates a ripple effect that impacts her grades, graduation and future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The initiative recently secured $3 million in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/governor\/newsroom\/2026-press-releases\/governor-shapiro-signs-bipartisan-2026-27-budget--securing-major\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pa.gov\/governor\/newsroom\/2026-press-releases\/governor-shapiro-signs-bipartisan-2026-27-budget--securing-major\">2026-27 state budget<\/a>, bringing Governor Shapiro\u2019s total investment to $9 million over three consecutive budgets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This state-funded effort aims to remove financial barriers to learning and help female students focus on their studies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">More than 750 Pennsylvania school districts, career centers and charter schools participate in the program. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In northeastern Pennsylvania, local schools will receive over $412,000, with the Scranton School District receiving nearly $17,000 to assist its student body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBy making free period products available to more than 650,000 girls across Pennsylvania, we are removing a silent barrier to education and ensuring every student can stay in class and focus on learning,\u201d Bogen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/media.pacast.com\/press_releases\/29796_DOH_PeriodProducts_release.pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/media.pacast.com\/press_releases\/29796_DOH_PeriodProducts_release.pdf\">PAcast\u2019s website<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WBNG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, Pa. (WBNG) &#8212; Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen visited West Scranton High School on Thursday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-265552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}