Explores the role of schools in providing pregnant and parenting adolescents with an array of support services that can mitigate some of the consequences of too early childbearing. Key research findings in the field of service delivery to pregnant and parenting adolescents are summarized to provide a knowledge base on which to build. (SLD)

Introduces this theme issue by suggesting that the problems teen parents present for school and society cannot be adequately addressed without an understanding of the cultural and social frameworks that have led to their prominence in national political discourse. Argues that successful prevention programs cannot be developed without this same…

Identifies how teacher discourses influenced the educational policy process by drawing from an ethnographic study of a school-supported integration initiative for pregnant and parenting teens in a high school in a small Canadian city. Conservative and liberal points of view about the program are explored. (SLD)

Explores the ideological commitments that are tacitly accepted and promoted by the norms, values, and dispositions of institutional expectations of the everyday routine experiences by pregnant and parenting students. A portrait of the curriculum they experience at present is followed by a discussion of changes that must be made to school programs…

To reduce the risks of adolescent pregnancy, comprehensive sex education programs and programs that reduce the risks indirectly by focusing on educational expectations and achievement are needed. Adolescents who do well in school and see education as a route to adult success have a reason to delay childbearing. (SLD)