The role of day care for teenage mothers in a public school

Abstract

Society stresses that teenage mothers should be helped to finish their high school education. However, their schooling can become a reality only if accompanied by child care. This paper describes the day care program of an alternative school for teenage mothers and pregnant teenagers. The school provides day care services to the children of the school-age mothers, from newborn to preschooler. The day care center is built into the public school setting. In addition to day care, a regular high school education is provided as well as health, social and transportation services. Day care helps the mothers continue their education, and these services, in turn, help day care carry out better child care programs. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to run the day care program. The availability of satisfactory day care plays a crucial role in the young mothers' decision to continue their education. Through the provision of day care, the school increases the number of young mothers entering and remaining in the school. Thus, day care is adopted as the major tool for engineering the multi-faceted program into a working system responsive to the needs of the school-age mothers and their children. The role of day care has, therefore, evolved into a new form--one which engineers the continuing education program in the public school setting.