DPS eyes plan for pregnant students

New moms could get 4 to 6 weeks off school by studying from home

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Ronika Bryant, 16, an East High School student, is seven months pregnant. Denver Public Schools is writing guidance for schools that could give new mothers up to six weeks after giving birth to recover and work on classes from home.

Denver Public Schools officials are putting together guidance for schools on the attendance of pregnant students, crafting a plan expected to give them four to six weeks after childbirth to recover.

The new mothers would be expected to complete work from home to keep up with their classmates.

"We're all in agreement we want these young ladies back in school and catching up," said DPS board president Theresa Pena. "We also need to be very mindful of the time they need for bonding with their babies and for healing."

Board members sought the clarification after hearing complaints that new moms were being told to report to class the day after they're released from the hospital - or begin racking up "unexcused" absences that could hurt their grades.

"I was shocked," board vice president Michelle Moss said after a pregnant East High School student and two East counseling interns spoke to the board Dec. 20.

The group from East, which also included a pediatrician and a psychology professor, suggested maternity leave of at least four weeks to allow new moms to recover.

No clear answers

Graduate student Nicole Head, one of two counseling interns who ran a weekly group for pregnant students at East in the fall, said efforts to help the girls were stymied by uncertainty about what would happen after they gave birth.

"Nobody wanted to talk to me about this," said Head, describing "weeks" of unreturned calls to DPS offices.

A school nurse at East, while supportive, told her that central district staff decided this past summer that girls were not to be given time off after giving birth.

"You can't have maternity leave," Head said she was told to tell her group. "If you have your baby on Wednesday, you better be back on Thursday."

DPS spokesman Alex Sanchez said the district does not have a separate policy on maternity leave and there were no changes to its attendance policy this summer.

"The administration and certainly also the board would agree that if . . . a teen mother got an unexcused absence because they didn't go to school two days after giving birth, that should not happen," Sanchez said.

DPS does not plan to create a separate policy on maternity leave, he said. Instead, staff is preparing procedures for school officials faced with pregnant students. They're expected within the month.

Some schools work with moms

Principals at other DPS schools said they had not been told to require new moms return to school within a time limit.

"We have not had a specific number of days that we say to a girl, you're allowed this many days," said Thomas Jefferson High School Principal Sandra Just. "We really just try to work with the young lady . . . on a case-by-case basis."

At Florence Crittenton, DPS' alternative school for pregnant girls and new moms, the school year is divided into quarters - rather than longer semesters - so students can more easily take time off for childbirth.

"We really encourage them to take at least six weeks off because that's what's best for the mom and the baby to have a healthy start together," said Principal Donna Campanella.

Similarly, officials in Jefferson County, Cherry Creek, Douglas County and Adams Five-Star school districts say schools work with pregnant students individually to keep them in school.

Nationally, school districts such as Minneapolis and Seattle say they also have maternity leave policies in favor of individual attention. In Seattle, pregnant students can qualify for homebound education services, which are reimbursed by the state.

Jill Lewis, nursing supervisor for Seattle Public Schools, said new moms typically receive up to six weeks postpartum care for normal deliveries.

Counselors support girls

Head and Celia Gruzalski, the other counseling intern at East, said they don't know if any girls were actually given unexcused absences after they give birth.

But they said the girls already face enough obstacles without that uncertainty.

The 11 pregnant students and two new moms in their group drew both support and snide remarks.

Head recalled one teacher at East who refused to accept doctors' notes from students who had to miss classes for prenatal care. An administrator finally had to talk to the teacher.

"There were a lot of battles for some of these girls because they miss a lot of school and different teachers had different feelings about whether to excuse their absences or not," Gruzalski said.

Kayla Lewis, 18, who spoke to the DPS board and whose baby is due in April, has completed her classes at East. She starts at Community College of Denver this month and will graduate from DPS in May, with college classes already under her belt.

She scoffed at the idea, put forth by some, that maternity leave for students will somehow encourage more pregnancies. "I don't really think that's true," Lewis said. "What we want is, we want to take care of our responsibilities and get our education as well."

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

DPS and birth control

A recommendation to make birth control available in some Denver schools is expected to be discussed at a Feb. 5 Denver school board meeting.

That recommendation is one of many contained in a task force report on school- based health clinics released in October. Board members are scheduled next month to hear from the authors of the report.

"We can accept or reject any of the recommendations," said DPS board vice president Michelle Moss, "and so can the Denver Health board."

Denver Health Medical Center operates the health clinics in 12 city schools. Hospital spokeswoman Dee Martinez said the board has not discussed the recommendations.

Moss was among the 43 members of the task force, including representatives from medical, state, city and foundation communities, who spent nine months working on the report.

• January 8, 2008

  6:15 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jane writes:

  Do these girls realize that if they were enrolled in college and pregnant, they would not get maternity leave? They would have to drop their courses, and start again next year. My sister took a final 3 days after giving birth in college.

  Do they realize that at most non-professional (and professional) jobs they would not get paid maternity leave? Their position would be held for them by fmla, but that is it. Denver Public School teachers do not get paid maternity leave, so I can see the teachers' reluctance to make it easy for a student to have a baby and return with no slow-down to their life.

  There should be a standardized policy that allows the girls to keep up with work at home, with their responsibility being to know what is being covered in class. If they need help keeping up, they can certainly come in after school and sit with a teacher to get questions clarified. This is what adults do. And people who have babies are thrust into adult-hood.

• January 8, 2008

  7:56 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  BirdonaWire writes:

  Keep it in your pants or your legs closed until you can take care of a kid you fools!

• January 8, 2008

  8:47 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  T1anda writes:

  What next DPS? Nurserys with diaper changing stations in the back of classrooms? Day care at the school?

  Did I miss something here? Aren't schools supposed to be institutes of learning?? How about mandatory classes on BIRTH CONTROL??????

  There are plenty of birth control methods on the market. Are these boys and girls just to lazy or intellectually challenged to use them??

• January 8, 2008

  11:28 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Finding_Forever writes:

  This is disgusting, why is DPS catering to teen pregnancy??

• January 8, 2008

  12:39 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  me2 writes:

  Young moms and their babies, are the future of the country no matter the age of the mom. This is wonderful to show that we care for these mini families.

  Now let us get the dads involved in some way. And yes if diaper stations are needed then so be it. It is out choice to treat sexually mature humans as children, even if mother nature treats them as breeding stock.

  All moms and babies need respect, age notwithstanding.

  Women, working together for decades, have made humane treatment of young pregnant girls the standard and we are becomming a more mature, better, more loving nation because of it.

  I spent the morning e-mailing to those who support these changes and will continue the good fight for respect for moms and babies.

• January 9, 2008

  9:08 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Kathymom writes:

  I am sick of the hypocritical idiots out there who are so judgmental and blaming of these girls. Teen pregnancy has been happening since the dawn of man. They are usually the healthiest of pregnancies. I ran a midwife clinic at a local hospital for 7 years for teen moms. THEY ARE MOMS JUST LIKE ANY OTHER. They need time to bond with their infants just like any other mother. Teens make very good mothers with a little help. Did any of you judgmental folks ever think that if young mothers had time to bond there might be LESS abuse? LESS crime? LESS dependence on the system? Then they might develop the determination to get out on their own?
  I was an adolescent mother myself; however, I was forced by the system and my parents to lose my daughter to adoption. I was sent away, isolated, and systematically brainwashed into thinking that I would be unable to care for my own child. This was despite the fact that I was already in nursing school. Thankfully, I am now in reunion with my daughter for the past 10 years.
  Why is the world so damning of pregnancy in young single women? Where is the love you so strongly profess to follow by whatever god you worship? It is not loving to judge and criticize. Haven't you read the latest research that "abstinence only" doesn't work? These girls need access to birth control and infection prevention. They do not need criticism. They need love and support.
  Kathy Aderhold, RN, MS, CNM

• January 10, 2008

  10:31 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  How is a teenage girl still in school and is pregnent going to keep up with the full curriculum after giving birth?Are people that blind. Once you have a baby your lucky if you get time to take a shower let alone keep up on schoolwork.HELLO! Unless the teenage mother has someone at home taking care of the baby while she studies there is very little chance she will be able to keep up with schoolwork.Let's be realistic here.If she does have someone at home helping her with the care of a newborn then she loses time bonding with her infant,which is supposed to be the reason why they want to give pregnant teens 6 weeks maternity leave.
  Doe anyone see the contradiction here.Having a baby is real world and babies need lots of care,How is a new mother suppose to keep up with her schoolwork and bond and take care of her child and graduate.Are they going to lower the standards even more for graduation if you have a baby?Who thinks this stuff up anyway?