CITY ECONOMY PAYS THE PRICE OF DROPOUT RATE

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New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released a report disclosing that only a fraction of teenage mothers and pregnant girls receive the necessary services intended to help them stay in school. Thompson’s report, titled “Undercounted and Underserved: New York City’s 20,000 School-Aged Young Mothers,” recommends that the Department of Education (DOE) better identify and support New York City’s teenage mothers. Comptroller Thompson chairs a Citywide Task Force on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention. The task force contributed to the development of the Comptroller’s report.

“We must do everything possible to ensure that pregnant and parenting teenagers finish their education,” Comptroller Thompson said. “Our current system must better locate and offer services for parenting teenagers. Studies have demonstrated that pregnant teens are far more likely to drop out of school and rely on public assistance to provide for their families.”

Thompson’s report shows that, citywide, more than 20,000 mothers under the age of 21 have yet to complete high school. Of that number, 8,000 are 17 years old or younger and are required by law to attend school. Of these teenage mothers, only 2,000 are receiving DOE services, such as utilizing “Family Centers,” which provide optional schools for pregnant teenagers, or “Living for the Young Family through Education” (LYFE) programs, which provide parenting students with child care services. LYFE programs currently operate in only 42 of the City’s 232 high schools (see Table 1, following page).

Thompson’s report reveals that the DOE faces many challenges in identifying teenage mothers. Despite a population of more than 20,000 school-age mothers, school-based personnel report an average of only 150 pregnancies each year to the DOE. Thompson cites serious shortcomings in DOE’s procedures for identifying pregnant and parenting students and calls for amendments to “Chancellor’s Regulation A-740: Education and Services for Pregnant Students and Student Parents,” which governs this process.

“I recognize the challenges the Chancellor faces in identifying pregnant and parenting teenagers,” Thompson said. “We must work diligently to redefine our City’s current regulations. This is not only a human concern, but also an economic one. New York City pays the price for its teenage parent dropout rate.”

Studies show that female high school graduates earn at least $6,000 more annually than female high school dropouts. Additionally, half of all single mothers in the U.S. who receive public assistance were teenagers when they had their first child. Thompson’s analysis found that, citywide, if the annual estimated number of teenage mother dropouts under the age of 18 received their high-school diploma, their combined annual salary could rise by as much as $36 million.

“Currently, the level of services available to a pregnant or parenting student varies from school to school,” Thompson said in the report. “If a pregnant student is fortunate enough to attend a school with a LYFE program, for example, finding quality convenient childcare will be relatively easy. If not, waiting lists for community-based child care services subsidized by the City number over 46,000.”

The Comptroller’s report recommends that the DOE: establish a working group to review and make recommendations for revising Chancellor's Regulation A-740; use its new Leadership Academy to train school administrators in the educational rights of pregnant and parenting students; and, develop a stronger continuum of services consistently available to every high school in the City.

“If we are going to help these young mothers, we must first know who they are and what they need,” Thompson said. “With the help of my task force, I would like to offer the Chancellor assistance in setting up a working group to revise his current Regulation A-740. By working together, we can develop a better system to keep our young mothers in school.”

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