Meeting the needs of the teen-age pregnant student: an in-school program that works.

The drop-out rate for pregnant students in the York (Pennsylvania) City School District is dramatically lower than the national average because the district recognized the need for meeting the unique problems of the pregnant student. In York, as in the rest of the nation, teen-age pregnancy was on the increase. Administrators of the district realized that a separately housed alternative education program would be too costly. In January 1979, the authors designed and implemented an in-school program called "Changing Roles." Five years later, that program has become an important factor in keeping the majority of pregnant students in school, at the same time, providing the girls the special information they need. In the 1982-83 school year, only 9.5% of the pregnant students dropped out of York City schools. This rate is far below the national drop-out rate of 80% to 90%.