Why Focus on Pregnant and Parenting Students in Education Reform?
- Every year in the United States, there are approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies. Nearly 3 in 10 girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once before age 20.
- Pregnancy and parenting responsibilities significantly increase a student’s risk of dropping out of school. In a nationwide survey of dropout youth, 33% of female dropouts and almost 20% of male dropouts said that becoming a parent was a major factor in their decision to leave school.
- Parenting responsibilities impede students' graduation. Only 51% of women who gave birth as a teen have a high school diploma compared to 89% of women who did not have a teen birth.
- The dropout crisis experienced by this group of students has severe short- and long-term consequences for the economic success and well-being of their families and communities, as well as our nation. Ensuring the success of pregnant and parenting students is critical, not only for them but also for their children, who will be more likely to eventually drop out if their parents have done so.
- Pregnant and parenting teens face many barriers to enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school, such as discrimination, the challenge of juggling schoolwork with parenting responsibilities, and lack of access to child care, transportation, and other critical services.
- Planning and providing supports for pregnant and parenting students can go a long way toward improving high school graduation rates, especially because pregnant and parenting students often are highly motivated. In the survey of dropout youth mentioned above, those who left school to care for a family member or because they became a parent were more likely than any other group of dropouts to say they would have worked harder if their schools had demanded more of them and provided the necessary supports.
- Eighty-one percent of all births to teens were first births and 16% were second births. The remainder were births to teens who had two or more previous births. For teen parents already struggling to finish their education, having another child can make it that much harder.
What are the Pregnant and Parenting Student Provisions of SASA?
- Instructs State educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) to include in their education plans a description of how they will plan for pregnant and parenting students to be enrolled, attend, and succeed in school. (The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires SEAs and LEAs to develop education plans as a condition for receiving ESEA Title I-A funds.)
- Instructs SEAs and LEAs receiving ESEA Title I-A funds to track and report non-personally identifiable data on enrollment, academic achievement, and graduation rates for pregnant and parenting students.
Points of Contact
- Healthy Teen Network - Bob Reeg, bob@HealthyTeenNetwork.org, 202.265.7271
- National Women's Law Center - Lara Kaufmann, lkaufmann@nwlc.org, 202.588.5180
