Handling pregnancy: Constructing choices in finishing high school

Schools are presumed to play a major and important role in the educating of pregnant and parenting students. While the response of schools to the problem of school-age pregnancy and parenting students has most often been special separate school programs, the regular school setting has taken on additional significance for its effect, influence and role on school life. It is also evident that more pregnant students are remaining in this school setting for longer periods of time. Historically, the school\u27s regular role has been characterized as a non-active participant in the educational development of pregnant and parenting students. In part, this response was influenced by research that stereotypes pregnant students negatively as educationally less capable and less desirous of completing school than their non-pregnant peers and fixing blame by making problem-resolving much of the young woman\u27s responsibility. What schools did or did not do for them in the past now influences the educational problems, dilemmas, and decisions made. As schools look for alternatives to address the education of pregnant students, and how the regular school setting influences those students (particularly those who are drop-out, school-age parents) the adolescent mother\u27s education takes on great significance for classroom teachers and regular schools. Four school-age mothers, who dropped out of school as parents, were the primary focus of this study. These school-age mothers said that while they tried to handle pregnancy, parenthood, and schooling, they experienced, non-acknowledgment of their pregnancy by their school, their own lack of connection to school, and a strong dependency on support systems outside the educational mainstream