I think any situation where a student makes up the work and keeps up with the class should be tolerated, AND, I think the states, in situations where a student is on school-supervised independent study, should maintain their daily attendance payment for that student.

In most schools, if you miss more than X days (where x is something like 17), for any reason, you will fail all your classes, even if you are keeping up and doing A level work.

(Interestingly, it's OK to miss more than X days of, say, your Algebra class, if you're missing them to play on a school sports team with a lot of away games.)

People put these rules in because they think kids can't learn outside of school, but some kids can and do. They think that that X day rule will keep kids in school - but it also kicks them out, because if you're going to fail no matter what, why keep going?

People get weird about babies and bonding and whatever, probably because there's a certain "YOU DESERVE TO WRECK YOUR LIFE FOREVER" aspect of sexuality in our society. But the fact is, if any student has major surgery or a major health incident during the school year, they're going to miss school. Not all students who give birth will need to miss much school, but those that do should be welcomed back, with the opportunity to make up their missed work.

I don't see the difference between recovering from childbirth and recovering from surgery.  I've had vaginal childbirths and even with my last one where I didn't have a single stitch I was not to lift anything heavier than the child for 4-6 weeks.  I don't think a month or two of leave where they are not penalized is unreasonable.

The first sentence in "Glad I'm not a Denver Taxpayer"'s letter boiled my blood almost to the point of tears.  I couldn't read any more after that so I hope I'm not being redundant or too far off topic.

It enrages me to see that "citizens" feel the need to brand a scarlet letter on teen parents (or, more specifically, moms--I rarely see this kind of hate directed toward teen dads, despite the fact that there is one for every teen mom).  A couple of years ago I noticed that the first baby of the year was born to teen parents.  I knew people would complain that they were somehow being rewarded.  I was right.  This, despite the fact that the first baby of the year is the first baby or the year--it's black and white.  This, despite the fact that these tend to be the same people who claim to believe that every little life is a miracle.  

Besides that, why shouldn't teens have family leave for other reasons, too?  Aren't teens family members?

was for all sorts of family situations, like Erin! I'd say yes, within reason. It can't be easy to focus on tests and grades if a family member is in critical shape.

Needless to say, I think applied FMLA to teenage girls is a good idea. Anything that can make it easier for teen moms to a.) get on with the business of being mothers and b.) keep up with their education has got to be a good idea IMHO!

these days, but back when I had my babies, we were told to really take it easy for these first six weeks and to not overly push ourselves to get back to work or other routine activities...you know, the old "just-because-you-might-feel-better-doesn't-mean-you're-back-to normal-yet" advice.  Between recovering from a pregnancy and the absolute sleep deprivation one can have during those first weeks, I don't see how one can make the case to require these young women to be physically present in class everyday.

Ofcourse, I've seen people flip out over kids needing medical leave for any reason.  One of my good friends was a home instruction teacher here in our district until a few years ago.  She taught a lot of kids with cystic fibrosis, severe asthma, etc., who would routinely be pulled from class during the winter months to avoid infection.  Do you know how prejudiced these kids' home schools would be against them?  Just vindictive by not allowing them to be listed on the honor roll or attend any school function throughout the year.  

There was a lot of hype locally when this story hit (we are 1.5 hours south of Denver).  The local media was all over the school where I work (because we have the only "parenting program" in the district, wanting to know what our district's policy was... and it was the topic of the morning radio shows (most callers were as ugly as the posts above).  

When the student and counselor approached the school board in Denver, the board was receptive.  However, in looking into how schools handled the situation already, they decided they didn't need to create a special policy.  When a student gives birth (or goes on bed-rest) she gets a doctor's note and the absences are excused and she is able to make up any missed work - just as she would be excused for any other medical condition.  The teen moms I work with routinely, without a problem, get a 6 week letter from the doctors... which is the age at which their babies are able to enter childcare. Many of them actually want to come back sooner (some do) and many of them work from home while they are out.  Some of our youngest girls or most at-risk, get home-bound tutors.  

I don't know exactly how Denver Public Schools handles the home-bound tutor issue (it's pretty expensive to provide HBT) or how difficult it is to actually make up work missed over a 6 week period (it's fairly easy at our school because most classes are self paced).  Ultimately what the DPS board decided was that teen parents were already protected under Title IX, but many teachers and school administrators didn't fully understand Title IX protections. Instead of creating a new blanket policy regarding maternity leave, they decided to create guidelines for school's consistent with Title IX - Which I think is the right approach because it allows schools to individualize the accommodations they make for pregnant and parenting teens.

as a society that scolding and wagging our fingers at teens who "mess-up" won't fix the problem.  We've been trying to guilt teens out of having sex my entire life by telling them its bad, dangerous, blah, blah.  The social stereotypes of being pregnant and a teenager haven't stopped - or even dramatically slowed - the pregnancy rate in this country.

So when will we learn this lesson and instead start making constructive attempts to help these teens turn a new page. I applaud this student for recognizing that she needs to bond with her child - not every teen mother makes that connection.  We should support a bonding opportunity for EVERY new mother regardless of age.  There is nothing more important than creating that bond when it comes to establishing the pattern necessary to properly provide for and love a child.