Shared by Daryl Penn

Daryl is an AACPS: Pupil Personnel Worker

My first year as a PPW, a fourteen-year-old, ninth-grade student was referred to me because she had poor attendance. I will call her “Nancy.” She was consistently truant from school. If she did attend school, she would leave after lunch and not return. She would leave with some older students that she knew from her neighborhood.

I began to meet her at lunch time and walk her to her next class so she would not be tempted or pressured to leave. Eventually she confided in me that she was pregnant and did not see how she was going to graduate from high school.

One of my PPW mentors told me about the Teen Parent Alternative Education Program (TPAP). It is a program for pregnant teenage students. Some of the advantages of the program include:

  • Students can bring their children to school with them;
  • Students start their day later;
  • Transportation is provided; and
  • The class size was less than ten students.

One of the criteria for admittance is attendance. I was worried that Nancy would not be accepted based on her poor attendance.

When I told Nancy about the program she was very excited. I was hopeful that she would be accepted into the program. I called the program director to speak on her behalf and hoped for the best.  A week later we found out that Nancy was accepted into the program. Everyone was excited.

Once Nancy started in the program, I called the program director to check on her monthly. She was doing very well. At the end of the school year I was transferred to a new school in a different feeder.

Three years later I was contacted by the TPAP Program Director because each graduating senior was given the opportunity to invite a special guest. Nancy had selected me. I felt honored. At her graduate she spoke about overcoming obstacles as a scared, pregnant teenager. She also discussed having caring adults that helped her along the way. I am proud to have been one of those adults.