What do pregnant and parenting teens need most?
For teachers and counselors not to encourage them to leave. Principals have told students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade that they have to go to Simpson (the only remaining school for pregnant girls). Girls have tried to get in, found there was a waiting list, and wound up dropping out. Students are not always told that homebound services are available. And if there isn’t someone to help them through every step to get those services, sometimes the student just falls between the cracks. Then, they try and go back to school and now they’re too old for elementary school or have trouble getting into an achievement academy (for overage 8th-graders). I shouldn’t be able to go to my reception room, grab a young woman, ask her why she is a dropout and hear the same stories all the time. Very few teen moms left school because they wanted to. Most of them tell these real horror stories about how they were pushed out the door. What has happened since Cradle to Classroom staff were cut? In the past it
