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r JAN 311994 BOOK 91 Nr. r -7 Iir. 632 Linda Thompson, Teen Parent Resource Program specialist, stated that there is an easy, simple answer to why teens get pregnant: They are sexually active. Teen sexuality is not a separate issue but reflects society's idea about sexuality. One of the activities the school has started is having students like Colleen and Yamma speak to sixth graders at middle school and try to influence them to postpone sexual involvement. The School District works with only about half of the teen parents in the county. The other half do not attend school and are out there somewhere, and we must be concerned about them. To find out why these young people are having children at early ages, the Dropout Prevention counselors studied the children who are not getting pregnant, and that analysis showed that they have parental support, are involved in many activities, and hope for the future. Young girls who do get pregnant believe that it makes no difference in the final outcome of their lives. Project ACCEPT (Accessing Career Counseling and Education for Parenting Teens) presents vocational and career possibilities for teen parents to give them hope that they can have a future that is different. The majority of these teen parents have been physically abused, sexually abused or raped, and there are no mental health services in the community to help them deal with these issues. The Dropout Prevention Program tries to tackle the problem of teen pregnancy from many different angles. Commissioner Macht led discussion regarding the males involved in the teen pregnancy problem. Ms. Tardi reported that 77 percent of junior high girls have been impregnated by men over 22 years of age. Of the 60 teen pregnancies in the program in the last year, there was only one teen father identified who was not a dropout and he is in the teen parent program. In cases where rape is involved, the victims generally do not want to prosecute, and the support of the infant becomes the responsibility of the State. The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services determines who qualifies for aid, and 60 to 70 percent of the girls in the program qualify for AFDC. Discussion ensued regarding how to identify students who are potentially at risk to be teen parents, methods of prevention, and expectations for successful completion of their education. Ms. Thompson emphasized that keeping the girls in school is most important because if we lose the teen parent, we also lose the infant. Dr. Berman emphasized that there is also great effort to keep the girls in the Family Planning Program. 16