Virginia Beach cuts back on program for pregnant teens

VIRGINIA BEACH

Seven girls with rounded bellies clustered in the front corner of the school auditorium to hear a talk on infant behavior. Weekly seminars, such as this one by the school psychologist, are nearly all that remains of the city's only academic program for pregnant or parenting teens.

Previously called the Princess Anne Center for Pregnant Teens, the program had its own nurse, some self-contained parenting and core classes and a block of trailers at Princess Anne High. This fall, it moved to the Renaissance Academy alternative school, but only eight girls followed. With such low enrollment, the renamed Young Parents Program, which admits only females, stopped offering separate classes.

The shrinking program doesn't mean there are few teen mothers in the city. In 2008, 430 Beach teens gave birth, second in the region only to Norfolk's 498. Across South Hampton Roads, both teen and overall birth rates fell in 2008, though teen births grew the previous three years.

The smaller numbers in the program might have more to do with the new location in an alternative school and the lack of day care to draw them there.

Virginia Beach is the state's largest school division without a day care for students, though calls for one go back more than a decade.

Fairfax, Prince William and Richmond each host at least one school-based day care. Fairfax County had 571 teen births in 2008, and Richmond c ity had 463. Prince William County, which eclipsed Virginia Beach as the second-largest school division in the state several years ago, had 408 teen births in 2008.

At least a third of students who become pregnant in school leave, according to a 2007 summary of research on female dropouts by the National Women's Law Center.

Casey Macer, a 16-year-old Beach junior, stuck with her studies. She spent the first two trimesters of her pregnancy at First Colonial High, struggling to stay awake in class. This fall, she transferred to the Renaissance Academy. Her mother watches her 4-month-old daughter, Sarai.

She said she looks forward to getting back to First Colonial. "I feel left out. They're about to do the Ring Dance."

When pregnant teens stay at their zoned school, they are harder to reach, said Katina Barnes, coordinator of Resource Mothers, a home visiting program for pregnant and parenting teens in Virginia Beach and Portsmouth. The three Portsmouth high schools call her with more referrals than the 11 comprehensive high schools in Virginia Beach combined, she said.

Public schools don't track the numbers or outcomes of pregnant or parenting students, although they face unique challenges that put them at higher risk of dropping out. They are more likely to have frequent absences, struggle to find child care, and may face discrimination. Parenting males also complete less school than their peers, but no local schools offer programs just for them.

Young parents who graduate are better able to care for their children without public assistance, according to the Healthy Teen Network, an association focused on pregnancy prevention and teen parenting.

Alivia Roberts, 18, said she attends the Young Parents Program "for a reason: I want to graduate." At Renaissance, she can accelerate her classes, grab snacks from supportive adults, and rely on a network where everyone knows "what it feels like when the baby's moving." Students even throw baby showers for each other.

But the 23 students enrolled in the program sacrifice other things. They have to leave a school where they have friends and familiar teachers. They have to wear uniforms and go through security checkpoints to get to class. And if they become pregnant in the middle of the school year, they have to give up the credits they've been earning at their home school to switch to the accelerated, two-semester schedule.

Raquel Mosley, 17, gave birth to her son, Marcello, on Wednesday. She doesn't like going to school with students who have disciplinary problems, and she sometimes worries about her safety on the shared bus route, she said.

The $66.2 million, 289,000-square-foot Renaissance Academy opened in January without a day care.

The calls for a school-based day care for parenting Beach students date to 1992, before many of today's high- schoolers were born. A consultant's report then recommended adding a day care to Open Campus High School and merging with the Princess Anne Center. A 1998 report reiterated the call for a day care, and in 2008 a planning committee for the new Renaissance Academy recommended one.

"This will keep some of our students from dropping out," the committee wrote. "So many of our students have children, maybe most of them," said Renaissance Academy teacher Alan Wakefield, who sat on the panel.

But the recommendation was never made a priority for the new school, according to the consultant in charge of the project at the time, Jerry Deviney.

Dan Edwards, chairman of the Beach School Board, said the day care issue has never gotten traction with the administration or board in the 12 years since his election. This year's budget, he added, doesn't leave room for anything new. Kay Thomas, Renaissance Academy's director, said day care would need grant funding to be viable.

Statewide, one out of every 12 babies born in 2008 had a teen mother, according to the Department of Health. Many who work with teen parents say the limited family life curriculum in Virginia plays a role.

"The most important thing is giving them scientifically accurate information. They're not getting that," said Leigh Anne Woods, a community health educator with Planned Parenthood and former Open Campus teacher.

The state requires school divisions to teach abstinence and the benefits of marriage, but adding information on contraception is a local decision. With the exception of one recent study, programs that teach abstinence without contraception have not been proven effective.

In Virginia Beach, the curriculum guidelines prohibit teachers from providing information on contraception outside marriage and omit information on popular birth control options such as hormone shots and intrauterine devices.

Pat Edmonson, a Beach School Board member, said attitudes about teen sexuality are tangled up with the idea of day care. Edmonson is a home counselor with the Barry Robinson Center, which provides health care to emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children.

"I just don't see how we serve the community by offering to see them through their pregnancies, then we fail to care for them like the children they actually are." Having on-site day care would also provide time for bonding and breast-feeding, she said.

But most School Board members are hesitant about the idea of day care.

"I'm not sure if that's something we should be providing," said Rita Sweet Bellitto, the School Board's vice chair, who will step down later this month to join the City Council. She said adding bus service to Renaissance last fall will likely lower the city's 6 percent dropout rate more than a day care.

Norfolk has offered a day care at Coronado School, its school for pregnant girls. Because of problems with the provider, the day care is temporarily closed, Principal Inez Blount-Mason said.

"We do have some students who have no other resources," Blount-Mason said. "I know the girls need that care." Coronado has 70 students.

Virginia Beach parents like Donnequa Perry, 18, wish a day care option was available at Renaissance. Perry's grandmother watches her one-year-old daughter, Jy'Asia, while she attends classes.

"Sometimes it's hard for me to go to school if my grandmother is sick or tired," she said. Perry, a senior, is a few credits away from graduating. She wants to go to college to become a nurse.

Chesapeake provides a program for pregnant and parenting teens of both genders who attend Oscar Smith High School, but not day care. Suffolk and Portsmouth don't offer specific programs, relying instead on homebound instruction and referrals to community groups.

In Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, a lack of day care is the top reason girls in the Resource Mothers program don't finish high school, Barnes said.

"They've got to do something," Woods said of Beach schools. The school division should see day care as a way to reduce the dropout rate and help the next generation of students, she said.

"I want to give that child a chance at life and end the cycle of poverty, teen pregnancy and dropout," she said.

"I'm a taxpayer as well, but we need to start with education."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com