East High Helps Young Moms Become High School Graduates
There is that old saying that when a woman is pregnant she is “eating for two.” In the case of teen pregnancy, the moms need schooling for two and that’s often not available or doable. But East High School is changing the odds faced by teen moms and their babies through a program called Little Scarlets. Thanks to this comprehensive onsite daycare facility six young women graduated last week and each of them swears they would not have achieved their diploma if not for Little Scarlets.
The center is located on Walker Street, right across from East’s primary campus. It’s made possible by the United Way and joint federal/state Child Care Block Grants. And it’s more than just a handy place where kids from two weeks to two years old can be dropped off to be babysat while their mothers complete work towards high school graduation.
Rochelle Evans is the Onsite Supervisor at Little Scarlets and she points out that the babies too are being taught while the moms are in class. “We use the Creative Curriculum for child development,” she says. “It emphasizes four primary areas: physical, cognitive, social/emotional and language. The kids aren’t just safe here with us, they’re learning too.”
Besides finishing up their required academic credits many of the young moms also take a parenting class at East that’s offered through the school’s Family and Consumer Science Department. They all say it’s a key source of support that offers practical advice on how to do what their hearts tell them to – take the best possible care of their kids. “I love that class,” said Alejandra Contreras whose daughter, Amirah (AKA, “Cheeks”), is ten months old. “They should absolutely keep it going.”
“This program breaks cycles with a team approach,” according to Lyn Marchant, the Community in Schools Site Coordinator at East. “Seeing these girls at commencement who have been so determined to overcome obstacles is very satisfying for those of us who work with young people.”
Little Scarlets is actually open to students district-wide, subject to the logistics of getting to and from and an enrollment capacity that’s currently set at fifteen. The 2012-13 school year was its second as another prong in the district’s heightened effort to prevent kids from dropping out in the first place and to retrieve them if they do. Marchant recalled that last year the availability of onsite daycare first lured a dropped-out mom back to school and her boyfriend/dad soon followed. Both of them graduated.
Even those teen moms whose high school diploma completes their formal education will stand to earn $600K+ more over the course of their adult lives than if they’d dropped out. But if this year’s class of Little Scarlet grads is any indication, high school is hardly the finish line.
For instance, Audrianna Nelson, with her one year-old son Julian bouncing on her knee, confidently declared her intention to start in pre-law at Drake University in January and become an attorney working on behalf of community agencies. “This place has been great for both Julian and me,” she beamed.
Caitlyn Hartley, proud mother of 19 month-old Nyla, will start training as a dental hygienist at DMACC in the fall. She almost stumbled just a month shy of her cap and gown but Marchant, Evans and the rest of the team were there to keep her from falling short. “I actually pulled out,” she admitted, “but they encouraged me to not give up and welcomed me back. I was up until past 2:00 in the morning on the last night to finish my work in time to graduate, but I made it!”
The ceremony last week at the Knapp Center is the central milestone of this story, complete with Pomp and Circumstance. But it’s not the only one. Along the way to it are anecdotes about babies saying first words and taking first steps, ones that will someday follow in maternal footsteps across a stage to accept hard-earned diplomas and everything that comes along with them.
