Giving Compass' Take:

• Even though U.S. graduation rates are high, it is still difficult for teen mothers to graduate, and they may need more assistance than public schools are currently providing.

• What kind of support systems can be added to school systems for teen mothers?

•  Read about if low teen birth rates mean less teen parent programs in Colorado.

With U.S. high school graduation rates surpassing 84 percent and hitting record highs, year after year, it’s easy to forget that there are still pockets of people for whom graduating from high school is still a big challenge. One is special-needs students. Another is teen moms.

We should maintain a focus on preventing teen births, but we also need to help improve the educational attainment of women once they become teen parents. Improving outcomes for young mothers can often improve outcomes for their children.

It’s particularly tempting to overlook this latter group because of the rapid decline in teen pregnancies over the last 25 years. The teen birth rate plunged more than 60 percent from 1991 to 2014, the most recent year of data. But it is hardly a problem solved. Nearly a quarter million teenage girls, ages 15 to 19, gave birth to babies in 2014.

Only 53 percent of women in their twenties who first became mothers when they were teenagers completed a traditional high school degree, according to a January 2018 report released by the nonprofit research organization Child Trends.

Another 17 percent earned their high-school equivalency diploma by passing the GED test. By contrast, 90 percent of women who did not give birth as teens obtained a traditional high school diploma.

Read the full article on educating teen moms by Jill Barshay at The Hechinger Report