Daycare in High Schools - Essay Example

Daycare in High Schools Each year, half a million teenagers become mothers in the United s. School-based child care programs are a positive way for educational institutions to encourage young mothers to return to or stay in school, prepare for employment, and acquire accurate information about child development and appropriate parenting practices. Nationwide, school-based child-care centers are increasing in number and are used to meet a variety of needs: They give teenage mothers an incentive to stay in school, and students interested in working with babies and young children get practical experience by changing diapers, resolving disputes over toys, and writing lesson plans. For some schools, career education is the main objective for operating child-care facilities. And in some cases, the centers provide on-site child care for teachers and other school employees. When there are child care centers in public high schools, teen-age parents whose children attend the facility are more likely to complete their education and less likely to become dependent on welfare. Schools benefit through lower dropout rates, improved parent education programs, vocational training for students, and increased performance from faculty who enroll their children in the facility. Communities profit from having a lower number of welfare participants; more efficient use of public health, nutrition, and social services; and more accessible high quality child care. The child care profession gains trained professionals, and all the children involved benefit from a high quality preschool education. Transition to Motherhood in Teen Mothers in High School: Preliminary Findings: The purpose of this ongoing descriptive study is to explore the transition to motherhood in adolescent mothers attending a large urban high school in New Haven with an on site parent support program and a school-based child care center. The first study aim is to examine the relationships among personal resources of the student-mothers, perceived environmental sources of stress and support, and student-mothers' parental competence and child health and developmental outcomes. The second study aim is to describe student-mothers' patterns of continued enrollment or graduation from high school, and subsequent childbearing in the sample. It appears that the urban adolescent mothers attending high school who are enrolled in an on-site parenting support program manifest positive parenting attitudes and behaviors, and the children enrolled in the child care center manifest positive development and health outcomes. The NCATS mother-child relationship scores were particularly impressive, especially in the sub analyses of cognitive growth fostering interactions between mothers and their children. The students with children enrolled in the school-based child care center have benefited with respect to their ability to complete or continue their high school education. With respect to delaying subsequent child births their rate of 12% of subsequent childbearing compares very favorably with much higher numbers (40%) reported in other studies. Effects of an Urban High School-Based Child Care Center on Self-Selected Adolescent Parents and Their Children: Examined the impact of an urban, high school-based day care center on low-income parenting teens and their children. Retrospective record reviews indicated that participating students showed improvement in overall grade point average. All students graduated or were promoted to the next grade. No participants experienced repeat pregnancies. Most children were current on immunizations and healthcare. Responding to the problem of teenage pregnancy is both difficult and controversial. Some schools have chosen to set up day care centers to help teen morns continue their education. If you're considering this option too, here's some advice from experts - those who've done it. Babies having babies. Everyone says it, with great despair, but few, it seems, are willing to do anything about the problem. Nearly everyone agrees that finishing her education is the best thing a teen more can do for herself and her child, but accomplishing that is no easy task. One solution - or at least one response - that some schools and districts are trying is providing child care services so that the young woman need not quit school in order to watch her baby. Make no mistake: This is not a quick fix or a long-term solution. But districts that have tried it have found that, properly run, such a program can keep young mothers in school - as well as provide other services to the mothers and babies. Joe Zepeda is principal at Mt. Madonna High School, an alternative high school in Gilroy, CA, which serves around 180 students including about 30 teen moms. The school's on-site child care program can accommodate 15 children, ages four months to two years; there's usually a waiting list of 15-20. Because attendance at the alternative school is often sporadic, teen morns on the waiting list can call in each morning at 7:00 to see if a space is available. Started using a state of California grant which has since expired, the School-Age Parent Program involves a partnership with the Santa Clara County Regional Occupation Program. For the past eight years, the program has helped teens finish high school; take courses in prenatal development, child development, and parenting; and prepare for careers. Zepeda reports that, thanks to the program, about a dozen teen parents graduate each year - up from one or two graduates per year before the grant. School campus child care programs included the following pointers: Provide a comprehensive program. "Child care by itself is not a panacea for getting young women to return to school," warns Redd. "They have other concerns as well. These young parents need different kinds of support. Make sure that those supports are there." Attendance problems, housing problems, family difficulties, and career concerns are among the other issues that may impede the educational process. "It's more than just babysitting," agrees Kelleher. "Assess the needs of your population, then try to get collaboration from different agencies - welfare, WIC, the Urban League, Head Start, etc. They are usually willing to help." Be prepared for politics and controversy. Zepeda says that Mr. Madonna's program receives no complaints because it's successful; the community recognizes the need and supports the solution. Most programs, however, stir up more controversy, at least in their early stages. "Plan for a lot of political kinds of meetings," advises Biddle. "There will be discussion of whether these programs promote teen pregnancy by making it easier for the teen moms." She also notes that other teachers in the school can make the process more difficult if they don't strongly support it, citing instances of faculty and staff criticizing the young women who had to walk past their classes to get to the child care center. Tap multiple sources for funding. Grants, fees, contracts with local welfare agencies, and more will almost certainly be necessary. Zepeda's program is currently looking for new sources of funding since the State of California grant that started the program has run out. Most programs also require teen morns to pay a fee - usually minimal and often paid by county assistance, but a vital element nonetheless. "My feeling is that they need to get in the mode of having that bill to pay," Kelleher remarks. In Sciame's program, teen moms have a co-pay fee of $1-$3 per day - or $6 per day if they don't qualify for public assistance. "That's still way below cost," she notes. "But we know some students can't pay it. What should we do We can't do it for free. Have car washes to raise money Take the time to chase grants" Welfare money is a frequent source of funding, but it can be tricky, Sciame warns. Some students will not qualify for it - for example, those who are not U.S. citizens or special education students who may be over the age limit for services. And with welfare reform on the agenda in many states, what works this year may be invalid the next. She also points out that the flip side of collaboration is the fact that each of the agencies that provide funding will have its own agenda. "You have to try to meet everyone's needs," she says. Pay particular attention to staff and caregiver training. High school child care programs find their staff from a wide variety of sources. Some districts require the centers to be staffed with personnel who have teacher contracts with the district. Others find paraprofessionals such as bus aides moving into the positions. Some require the teen moms themselves to work in the center a certain number of hours per week, perhaps as part of parenting classes or vocational training. Redd points out that caregivers need training in curriculum and infant/toddler development, but that they must also be able to interact with the teen parents, who need different kinds of support than the average child care consumer. "You have to invest in training," she warns. "It's labor-intensive." Once again, though, creativity and taking advantage of local resources can help. Sciame reports that her program, located in Arizona near a large retirement community, usually has at least 25 "volunteer grandparents" who help take up the slack. Beyond the broad issues of high school campus child care, however, there are day-to-day problems that can make or break a program. Several people cited transportation problems, for example. In the case of the Dayton, OH program, when the child care center was moved to one school building, while the teen moms had to travel to another to take classes, enrollment dropped so sharply that slots became available for children of faculty and staff. Among the potential pitfalls - and possible solutions - are these. Have clear guidelines and rules. Most of the centers have waiting lists of students who need care for their children, so most require teen moms to abide by certain rules to keep their places. Zepeda's alternative high school, for example, requires good grades and attendance of the teen moms. And, of course, legal requirements and all the attendant paperwork for welfare or other social services agencies help, plus childhood vaccination and other requirements need to be met. (Despite the argument that child care programs make it easy on teen morns, those involved say that, on the contrary, the young women must be highly motivated and organized in order to succeed.) The Georgia case was "a very special situation in a child who was genetically predisposed" to develop neurological symptoms under stress, according to Julie Gerberding, M.D., the agency's director. In a telephone press conference, Dr. Gerberding said the case -- although "sad" -- doesn't change the CDC's recommendations on childhood vaccinations. "There is nothing about the particulars of this situation that should be generalized to an understanding of the risks associated with vaccines for normal children," he said. "Our message to parents is that immunization is life-saving," she said. Dr. Gerberding spoke after a special federal "vaccine court" ruled that the family of Hannah Poling, now nine, of Athens, Ga., is entitled to compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund. The court agreed that vaccines worsened a rare underlying mitochondrial disorder and gave rise to autism-like symptoms. An amount of compensation hasn't been set. Dr. Gerberding said the CDC could not comment on the Georgia case, but she added that mitochondrial disorders are known to have the potential to cause nerve and muscle tissue degeneration, sometimes with autism-like symptoms. During the CDC press conference, Edwin Trevathan, M.D., director of the agency's Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, said there is no solid evidence that administration of vaccines by themselves can cause a pre-existing mitochondrial effect to manifest itself. He added that many kinds of stress -- including some of the diseases included in childhood vaccines -- can overload the defective mitochondria and cause tissue damage. Neurological damage is likely, he said, because the brain is a major consumer of the body's energy and "tends to suffer the most" if the mitochondria are not working properly. He said the symptoms of such damage vary depending on what part of the brain is affected, but can mimic autism spectrum disorders. But he added that mitochondrial defects are not the main player in the development of autism spectrum disorders, whose cause -- for the most part -- remains mysterious. "Most children with autism do not seem to have mitochondrial disorders," he said. Yet the case of the Georgia girl seems likely to revive the debate over the risks of childhood vaccines, which made news earlier this week after Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, said there is "strong evidence" that vaccines cause autism. References: 1) http://www.uwgnh.org/docs/prelim_findings_11_26_abstract.doc 2) http://behavior.bettergpa.com/behavior-resources/teen-parents-and-child-care-and- school.html# 3) http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/12/02/nf_daycare991201.html Read More