Options Program
School-based program providing training and individual support to pregnant or parenting high school students and their young children, birth to age three.
Goals
- Ensure high school graduation of pregnant and parenting students.
- Facilitate school readiness of the children (birth to age three) of teen parents.
- Delay subsequent pregnancies among young parents in high school.
Program Activities
- Provides information and training through weekly group meetings in school and ongoing, individual support through home visiting services.
- Works closely with school faculty to ensure high school graduation for all young parents.
- Provides parenting education, developmental screening, and age-appropriate parent-child activities for each teen parent and their child.
- Develops community support network for each young family through referrals to health, social service and child-care agencies in their neighborhood.
Outcomes
- 85% graduation rate among Options program participants.
- 100 pregnant and parenting high school students receive continuing parenting education with follow-up provided in the home.
- Developmental screening, monitoring of prenatal care and immunization, children's book distribution, and literacy activities for each young child.
Supported by: Chicago Public Schools, Office of Early Childhood Education's Community Partnership Programs
