Day Care Centers for Teenage Mothers Underused

New York, NY —

Day care centers set up to help teenage mothers stay in school are being underused, according to New York City education officials.

About seven thousand girls in the city's public schools each year are either pregnant or already have children, but only about 500 use the day care centers. The superintendent of the city's alternative high schools says the district is reviewing the centers to see if they are in the right locations and are being publicized well enough.

Until recently, New York City also had four schools especially for pregnant girls or new mothers, but the institutions were closed because of dwindling enrollment and concerns that their coursework was too easy. Forty city high schools now house their own day care centers for students.

Teenage pregnancy rates have dropped substantially in the city since the early 1990s, when teen girls were having close to 1400 babies a year.