Girls Mix Formula With Books in Schools for Young Mothers

The bright basement room at Cardozo High School was quiet for the first time in hours--no “Hokey Pokey” or baby wails, just the murmur of hushed adult voices as five well-fed infants eased into their early afternoon naps.

Debbie, 18, gazed into a crib at her son, 8-month-old Gregory, whose picture she wears in a tiny pendant around her neck. In a few minutes her lunch break would end and she would have to return to class.

“I was pleased to go back to school and make my future better, for him,” said the slim teen-ager, dressed in sweater and jeans. “I need to get a proper job. I want to be a pediatric nurse or doctor.”

These might have been empty dreams for Debbie, who lives on welfare, but for a colorful oasis of innocence, stuffed animals and rocking chairs in the bowels of a stark, brick, urban high school.

“I don’t have anyone to look after the baby. I can’t afford a baby sitter,” Debbie said. “That’s what I love about this center. It really provides for the mother who wants to go back to school.”

More than 1 million teen-age girls become pregnant each year and nearly half of them have their babies, according to the Center for Population Options. About half of those who complete their pregnancies drop out of school, often because they don’t have child care.

High Price

Society pays a high price for teen-age pregnancies: low-birth-weight babies who may need special medical care and later remedial education, long-term unemployment and welfare reliance among undereducated teen parents, and child abuse and neglect by the inexperienced and frustrated parents--many of whom have disturbed family lives themselves.

But experts believe--and studies are beginning to show--that child-care centers at or near high schools can keep teen mothers in school, reduce repeat pregnancies and draw adolescent parents into a web of services that heighten their chances for a good life.

“You pay now or you pay later,” said Sharon Rodine, director of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting. “All kinds of related social problems can be reduced when you can put a little money into child care for the teen parent.”

Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said: “If these mothers stay in school, it makes a great difference in the welfare rolls and a very great difference in their children’s futures. A working parent who can read and write is not likely to have an illiterate kid.”

Child care usually is the cornerstone of a whole network of support services needed by young mothers, who often have poor basic skills and few opportunities, concludes the draft of an article to be published in March by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF).

“You have to provide a special range of services. But without child care, I don’t see what pregnant teens’ opportunities are,” says Helen Blank, the organization’s director of child care.

There are 400 to 500 school-coordinated child-care services in the United States, according to CDF. Some, like Cardozo, are in public school buildings; some are in separate schools for teen-age parents, while others are in family day-care homes near schools attended by the parents.

The main advantage to students is that scheduling and transportation are enormously simplified. The tie-in also means that some mothers can breast-feed, counselors can observe parent-child relationships, and the day-care centers can be used to teach parenting skills. In addition, the young mothers retain their status as primary caretakers--rather than turning that responsibility over to their own mothers.

Most programs arrange or provide health care to both mothers and babies and make sure new parents learn how to care for and understand their babies. Some provide mentors to student mothers, some offer family counseling and some find ways to involve each baby’s father, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Child Studies Required

At Cardozo, staff members see to it that mothers and babies receive physicals and immunizations. The girls attend weekly parenting classes or rap sessions. They’re required to take child studies in their home-economics classes.

“They have more tolerance in the evening with their babies because they have some relief during the day,” said Lucille Green, the coordinator of infant programs in the District of Columbia public schools. “I’m sure we’ve cut down to some degree on child abuse and neglect.”

The Cardozo program has two simple aims: delaying further pregnancies and finishing school. Each girl must call the center by 9 a.m. if she will be late or absent that day. If she leaves the building during school hours, her baby goes with her. Her attendance is monitored. She will be kicked out if she becomes pregnant.

‘We’re not here to baby-sit,” Green says. “We’re here to keep them in class.”

“They know they’ll be dropped from the program if they abuse it,” she added. “Sounds tough, doesn’t it? But these are teen-agers we’re dealing with. We have to be very, very strict with our regulations. Otherwise, things would get out of hand.”

The first school-based child-care centers arose in the 1970s. But the idea has only recently begun to attract widespread attention and, to some extent, money. Education Secretary William Bennett declined through a spokesman to comment on the issue.

States and cities have been taking the lead.

According to CDF:

- California’s School-Age Parents’ Infant Development Program began a dozen years ago with $2 million supporting 13 on-site child-care centers. Last year its budget was $6.5 million--all state funds--for 61 centers serving 1,800 adolescent parents and their children.

- Florida is providing $750,000 in start-up funds for child care for adolescent parents this year, a 250% increase over its allocation for 1985-86.

- Under a 2-year-old program in Michigan, child-care services are guaranteed for all parents under 21 who are participating in high school completion programs.

- New York City sponsors on-site and family day-care centers, and has started several General Equivalency Diploma (GED) programs for homeless adolescent parents temporarily living in old hotels.

Several studies indicate teen-agers would stay in school if child care were available, CDF researchers found. Actual follow-up data on schools with child-care programs is sparse, but encouraging.

In rural Leslie, Mich., for example, the Family Learning Center found that 91% of its pregnant and parenting seniors graduated while 97% of its parenting eighth- to 11th-graders stayed in school.

And in Albuquerque, a follow-up study of students at the 16-year-old New Futures School showed that 82% of participants over a six-year period had completed high school or received a GED and the repeat pregnancy rate was one-third the national average.

Learning to Make Formula

New Futures is one of several alternative schools geared especially for teen-age parents, mostly mothers, and their children. It offers prenatal health and parenting classes, counseling, social services and on-site health care. Classes are practical--for instance, students learn to take a baby’s temperature and measure formula, using the day-care center as a lab.

New Futures Principal Caroline Gaston says the setting fosters self-esteem and confidence among the more than 200 students in the program.

“They’re here by choice,” she said. “They see it as an opportunity rather than a punishment. We treat them as women who are taking on a responsibility and who are maturing.”

Like most programs, Cardozo has no hard data to demonstrate its success. But letters and testimonials bear out what studies elsewhere have shown.

“Words cannot say how much thanks you all deserved. Because of you kind-hearted people, I was able to become a part of the class of 1984 and graduate,” said a note from a former student.

“If they didn’t have this program, I wouldn’t be coming to school,” said 16-year-old Karen as she helped her 1-year-old daughter eat a chili dog during a recent visit. “It’s nice. Everyone cares about each other.”

Despite a consensus that early help can reduce the personal and societal toll later on, cost remains the biggest barrier to providing child care. Taking into account space and staff requirements, outdoor play areas, bathrooms, kitchens and other expenses, Blank estimates that day care could cost up to $4,000 annually for an infant.

Total federal and state child care funds fell 12% between 1981 and 1986, according to CDF.

Most programs for teen parents are funded through a painstaking patchwork of federal, state, local and private dollars -- a complicated process that in itself can be enough to discourage anyone interested in offering child care and related services to adolescents.

But lack of money is not the only obstacle.

Teen-age mothers can be an invisible group where school is concerned. Since they often drop out, schools don’t consider them a problem. And school administrators, overburdened and pressed for space already, are reluctant to shoulder new responsibilities. There’s also been some opposition on moral grounds.

“Communities often feel you’re making it too easy on the kids. There’s a little bit of that punishment, judgmental feeling coming into play here,” Rodine says.

Gaston says some proponents have found less opposition to setting up child-care centers than to offering sex education classes. But, she adds: “You never have 100% of the community. There are always people who wonder.”

There are many who believe high school day-care centers--and the sight of harried teen-age mothers boarding buses each morning with books, kids, clothes, formula, bottles, diapers, bibs and blankets--are a potent disincentive to other students.

“The reality of it takes away from the feeling that these are just cute little Cabbage Patch dolls to dress up,” Rodine says.

“You see them shaking their heads and saying, ‘Uh-huh, that’s not for me,”’ Green says, referring to students who visit the Cardozo center to see their friends’ children. She said one young man worked at the center for a summer and reached this conclusion: “Boy, you really have to be real careful.”