Northwestern HS Day Care Helps Teen Moms Graduate

Did you know that Northwestern High School is one of two Prince George's County schools with a day care facility for the children of its students?

A report published in The Washington Post yesterday profiled the school's Early Head Start day care program, which boasts a 95 percent graduation rate. According to The Post, there are only a handful of such high-school-based day care programs in the country. 

Maxine Thompson Burroughs, who oversees Northwestern's day care program, said the facility allowed girls to get an education who might otherwise have withdrawn from classes to care for their children.

“A lot of people think we are enabling pregnancy,” said Maxine Thompson-Burroughs, who operates the Early Head Start program at Northwestern. “We are not a babysitting service. The mission of the program is to help them graduate from high school.”

The day care services are not cheap. According to the report, it can cost a student upwards of $850 per month to use the services, though some or all of that can be paid for by state-issued vouchers. One student interviewed in the report, 2011 Northwestern High School graduate Brenda Gonzales, paid $400 per month to have her child enrolled at the day care center, the rest covered by state vouchers.

Full story here.