MovieChat Forums > Fifteen and Pregnant (1998) Discussion > Can schools require pregnant teens to en...

Can schools require pregnant teens to enter alternative schools?

posted 15 years ago by jenni_doll_1
13 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone know what the specific laws are on this subject state to state and have actual resources on where this information can be found? I've always wondered what the law says schools are or are not allowed to do regarding removing pregnant teens from their regular classes in favor of alternative schools or requiring they enter special programs for pregnant teens, basically the way the school did with Tina in this movie. Is it or is it not legal for schools to remove pregnant girls from the rest of the student body and does anyone have any actual resources that site this info factually? Also what is your opinion of this subject? Do you understand the schools' viewpoint on this and agree with it? Or do you think it is wrong for them to temporarily remove pregnant girls from the rest of the student body while pregnant?

[–] purplepirate-1 15 years ago

At my school, they don't make pregnant girls leave. I've never even heard of any alternative schools of that nature in our area. My personal opinnion is that it should be up to the girl and what she wants to do.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] nicholenewton13 15 years ago

When I was in high school, which wasn't that long ago, the pregnant girls could stay in school til they showed, then the school district provided a home tutor. My mom was one of the tutors. Once the baby was born, they could go to night school, but they could not participate in graduation, class trips, prom, etc. The fathers also had to go to night school, if he was still in school, as he was required to go into the co-op work program. Now, they have day-care in school!

[–] syntheea118-1 15 years ago

I work as a high school teacher and have had many teenage pregnant girls. Schools can not force teenagers to switch schools, but they do encourage them.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] angelistarr 15 years ago

I know in NYC, its dependent on the school. I had a friend in the public school system who was asked to go to an alternative school and she may return after the pregnancy. Another friend of mine actually was able to stay in the school she went to. They didnt see it as a problem.

Private schools "encourage" and ask students to leave. My HS asked the girls to leave whenever they found out a student was pregnant. Some get away with it if theyre in their senior year though.

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[–] justlyndsay19 14 years ago

I was pregnant in 10th grade. I was not asked to leave, but there was an "alternative" school I could have gone to that had much shorter class days but I didn't want to go there and didn't even consider it. Usually the people who went to the alternative school were "trouble makers" who were expelled from regular school.

My opinion is that it would be ridiculous to ask pregnant teens to leave school. Especially if the fathers didn't also have to leave. Its hard enough finishing high school as a pregnant or parenting teen without also being discriminated against and told that you don't have a right to the education of your own choosing.

[–] paiges-daughter 14 years ago

At my school we had a lot of girls pregnant (especially my senior year), none of them went to an alternative school. But I do remember in an interview the superintendent did want to make a school and try to require girls to go if they got pregnant. Nothing has come from this (plus, it wouldn't work - I live in Tennessee, there's so much teen pregnancy that parents would be outraged if someone tried to send girls to another school). Also, at my school you weren't kept from anything like prom or graduation. You did have to attend school until your due date, or whenever you went into labor and you had six weeks of homebound afterwards.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] mjedelin 12 years ago

At my private school, it was a rule in the handbook tat if you got pregnant the faculty would do their best to make the mother to be comfortable at school

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[–] tomydearjuliet 11 years ago

In my school, you were treated the same but you HAD to take a class that was a teen pregnancy class

[–] Tracey73 9 years ago

My opinion is that it would be ridiculous to ask pregnant teens to leave school. Especially if the fathers didn't also have to leave. Its hard enough finishing high school as a pregnant or parenting teen without also being discriminated against and told that you don't have a right to the education of your own choosing.

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[–] velcronewsletter 10 years ago

the pregnant girls in my school continued as usual. i've never heard of girls being transferred elsewhere but then i don't know if that's an option in england. they did do their lessons and exams at home in the last month of pregnancy though

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