State Efforts to Support Students in Finishing School: California and Illinois


A 1998 California law which puts into place a comprehensive, community-linked, and school-based program that serves expecting and parenting teens and their children is one example of legislation that aims to promote school success for youth. In Illinois, the Ensuring Success in School Act (ESSA), or House Bill 3615, serves as another example.

H.B. 3615, now scheduled for a vote by the full Illinois House of Representatives, promotes the school success of Illinois students who are expectant parents, parents, or victims of domestic or sexual violence by fostering their safety and confidentiality, encouraging meaningful parental involvement in their academic plans when such involvement is safe and healthy, and holding schools accountable for linking the students to existing resources in school and in the community.

Nationwide too many expectant or parenting youth or both drop out or are disenrolled from school and never return to complete high school. Among females who drop out of school, the number one reason cited by them is pregnancy and parenting responsibilities. Almost 60 percent of teens with a school-age pregnancy drop out between 8th and 12th grade./1/ Only 64 percent of teen mothers complete a high school education, compared to 90 percent of all teen girls./2/ Teen fathers are also more likely to drop out of school in order to earn money by working, and they tend to remain in low-paying, unskilled jobs that offer little hope for future advancement./3/

Youth who are the victims of domestic or sexual violence also face challenges in school that hinder their academic success and school completion. In Illinois, for example, some victims of domestic violence have been blamed for the violence they endured while school officials have expelled victims of rape.

Although youth who are expecting, parenting, or the victims of domestic or sexual violence are at great risk of low educational achievement, few states have made significant efforts to support them. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, in coalition with other organizations, has been advocating on behalf of these youth in Illinois so that they may stay in school and complete their high school education. The Shriver Center has also been examining other states’ programs and policies that support youth who are expecting, parenting, or the victims of domestic or sexual violence. One of these states is California, where the program that serves expecting and parenting youth and their children has been in operation since July 2000.

The 1998 California School Age Families Education (Cal-SAFE) law offers a variety of support services that foster educational achievement, effective parenting, and healthy families. Cal-SAFE programs are open to any female or male student who is 18 or younger, has not earned a high school diploma or its equivalent, and is an expecting parent, custodial parent, or noncustodial parent playing an active role in caring for and supervising her or his child. The children of students enrolled in a Cal-SAFE program may also receive services until they turn 5 or enter kindergarten, whichever occurs first.

Cal-SAFE programs are authorized to provide services such as academic support, parenting education, classes in life skills, career counseling, peer and family support groups, and child and domestic abuse prevention education. Cal-SAFE programs provide provide enrolled students with transportation from home to school and meal supplements for pregnant and lactating students.

During the 2001–2002 academic year, Cal-SAFE programs served 9,163 expecting or parenting teens or both—95 percent female and 5 percent male—and 6,272 of their young children. Preliminary descriptive statistics about the students who were enrolled in Cal-SAFE programs and their children show that overall an impressive number fared well. During the 2001–2002 academic year:

  • 1,973 students permanently exited the program with 77 percent of them exiting because they completed their high school education.
  • Of the 1,973 students who exited the program and gave information about their future plans, 89 percent indicated that they would pursue further education or begin working, and 11 percent indicated that they would stay home to raise their children.
  • Of the Cal-SAFE program students who gave birth, more than half began to receive prenatal care in their first trimester, and expecting Cal-SAFE program students averaged 12 to 13 prenatal visits.
  • Of the babies delivered by Cal-SAFE program students who reported their babies’ birth weight, just 7.8 percent were low birth weight, or less than 5.5 pounds.

The Cal-SAFE program is an excellent model for other states seeking to support their youth who are expecting and parenting so that they may succeed in school and fortify their and their children’s future well-being. In Illinois the Shriver Center and its coalition partners are working to support the efforts not only of expecting and parenting youth to succeed in school but also of youth who are the victims of domestic and sexual violence.

Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough (D) introduced H.B. 3615 in the Illinois House of Representatives at the end of February, and, by the beginning of March, H.B. 3615 had been unanimously voted out of the Illinois House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. H.B. 3615 is scheduled for a vote by the full Illinois House—a vote that must be taken no later than April 15.

To lend your support to H.B. 3615 today, urge your state representatives to vote YES on H.B. 3615. Tell them H.B. 3615 is extremely important for Illinois students who are expectant parents, parents, or the victims of domestic or sexual violence and who are trying to perform well in school and complete their high school education.

Contact your state representatives at their home-district offices during the week of March 28 or in Springfield during the week of April 4 and April 11. If you are unsure of who your legislators are or how to contact them, go to www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/SelectOfficialSearch.asp and search by your address.

For more information, contact Wendy Pollack (312.263.3830 ext.238) or Aleeza Strubel (312.263.3830 ext. 229).

Thank you for your support of H.B. 3615.

1. Center for Law and Social Policy, Leave No Youth Behind: Opportunities for Congress to Reach Disconnected Youth (J.Levin-Epstein & M.H. Greenberg eds., 2003), available at http://www.clasp.org/publications/Disconnected_Youth.pdf.

2. U.S. General Accounting Office, Teen Mothers: Selected Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Risk Factors (1998), available at http://www.gao.gov/archive/1998/he98141.pdf.

3. Norman A. Constantine & Carmen R. Nevarez, Public Health Institute, No Time for Complacency: Teen Births in California (2003), available at http://teenbirths.phi.org/TeenBirthsFullReport.pdf.

March 30, 2005