Maternity leave sought for teen girls

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

The reasons why the schools probably will not allow students to repeat or retake classes is because it is costly to remediate.

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

AGDee, I don't want to punish them, but I don't want to increase the cost and burden of their education to other people. If a girl could do four weeks of homework independently at home and come back ready, I'd be all for giving them the time off, but I know from working with our homebound teachers that that never happens in our district. The kids struggle to do the assignments without direct instruction from a subject area teacher and when they come back, you basically have to reteach them everything they've missed. Why not give them more time off and just have them repeat? Or if they did understand all the work, do credit by examination for the course?

I understand what you are saying about interruption in school, but I also know that giving any high school kid a month off is a pretty big interruption anyway.

And it's been my experience that I've never had a super academically motivated kid in high school who had a baby while in high school. It's not a question of ability; they weren't dumb, but they weren't the kids who were going to do four weeks of work on their own. Heck, if I had a baby, I doubt I'd be as interested in anything other than the baby, either.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

Looks like we were posting at the same time. I think it's harder to "fake" home schooling than your post indicates. And, some of this may vary by state.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Looks like we were posting at the same time. I think it's harder to "fake" home schooling than your post indicates. And, some of this may vary by state.

There is very little oversight of home schoolers in Georgia, (and I think it's fine): http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/askdoe.aspx?PageReq=ASKHome

So here, yep, it'd be relatively easy to do.
But it'd be even better just to amend the truancy laws to allow girls to stay home with babies for up to a year without facing charges or actually her parents facing charges.

I know that special education students can get public education services until they are 21 under federal law, so I'd be kind of surprised if other states dismissed students for truancy or refused to allow them to re-enroll or retake classes if they were younger than 21, but of course, I don't know.

Are there any states that kick you out at a certain age or after a certain number of years in high school that we know of? I think we'd have heard if they did.

About the babies' dads, I think it would be great to make them responsible, but I think only the guys parents could make them, if they could. While the state can compel support from a parent, I don't think it can force custody on anyone who doesn't want it, and we wouldn't really want it too, would we?

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm also a little stunned by the assumption that any kid who gets pregnant must be too stupid to keep up with their studies. If they can keep up with the 4 weeks of homework while they stay home, then why shouldn't they be allowed to stay home? It seems like the majority of you just want to punish these young women rather than encourage them to strive for a positive future in spite of their obstacles.

ETA: What school district allows a kid to drop out of school for a semester? Perhaps allowing that would be the "maternity leave" that is needed. But, around here, if you miss 10 days of school in one semester, you are truant and you and your parents can be ticketed and/or arrested. You also lose the ability to get your drivers license. I think the law in Colorado would make it possible for a kid to drop out for a semester rather than trying to return to school 24 hours after having a baby.

While I agree that young people who just make a misjudgment before they have sex does not preclude them from being wholly ignorant and stupid, many of them are in numerous areas--i.e. Britney Spears' sister as an example. If they lapse in good judgement that affects another life, what other areas would they lapse in, also? And failing school precedes these kinds of things as measured from a "public health" perspective. A young girl's esteem drops, she makes errors in judgment, leading to self-destructive behavior, then affecting another life. That is the course in the cycle of poverty...

Poverty robs civilized society of its maximum potential... Since it is morally wrong to hurt the poor, we are asked to help them the best we can--hopefully devoid of judgment. But, when harm is done, we are left to provide consequences for people's inappropriate behavior.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

That's interesting. I have long forgotten what the truancy rules are. So, I brought up what my opinion of the alternative could be, and that is the best I can come up with.

I don't know what to do, I have never been pregnant or had a child. But, from my friends that do have children, and what the educators and pediatricians say, that spending those formative years with your child are very important.

[SWTXBelle]

For what it is worth, I've made sure my girls understand that if you have sex, you might get pregnant. No ifs, ands or buts - sex COULD equal pregnancy, even with birth control. They have a more hands-on experience with babies than most. They saw their now-6 year old brother being born, and have been around babies since they were 10 and 12. My 18 year old thinks that hiring the boys(6 and 4 now) out for a weekend could go a long way to curbing teen pregnancy rates!

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

AGDee, I don't want to punish them, but I don't want to increase the cost and burden of their education to other people. If a girl could do four weeks of homework independently at home and come back ready, I'd be all for giving them the time off, but I know from working with our homebound teachers that that never happens in our district. The kids struggle to do the assignments without direct instruction from a subject area teacher and when they come back, you basically have to reteach them everything they've missed. Why not give them more time off and just have them repeat? Or if they did understand all the work, do credit by examination for the course?



Heck, if I had a baby, I doubt I'd be as interested in anything other than the baby, either.

^^^ Reality check!!!!

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And it's been my experience that I've never had a super academically motivated kid in high school who had a baby while in high school. It's not a question of ability; they weren't dumb, but they weren't the kids who were going to do four weeks of work on their own. Heck, if I had a baby, I doubt I'd be as interested in anything other than the baby, either.

My experience in high school (which probably was unusual, I'll admit) was that the only girl in my class who had a baby while in still in school was in Honors/AP classes with me. Once she had the baby, she transferred to the Advanced Academy of Georgia to get a head start on her college degree. Her son is adorable

(Point being: Please don't make assumptions. People make mistakes and birth control isn't foolproof.)

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DSTRen13

My experience in high school (which probably was unusual, I'll admit) was that the only girl in my class who had a baby while in still in school was in Honors/AP classes with me. Once she had the baby, she transferred to the Advanced Academy of Georgia to get a head start on her college degree. Her son is adorable

(Point being: Please don't make assumptions. People make mistakes and birth control isn't foolproof.)

I wouldn't let my assumptions about what was generally true override my direct experience with a particular person.

But we make policies to cover the majority of the cases and whether we like it or not, schools really do need policies when dealing with teenagers.