by Lisa Huynh
West Hawaii Today
lhuynh@westhawaiitoday.com
Sunday, July 16, 2006 10:47 AM HST
 

Director Ellen O'Kelly, left, and Nem Lau roll out the carpet for the play area in the childcare center at Kealakehe High School. Furniture, toys and other items were obtained through a federal grant funding the project. - Brad Ballesteros | Special To West Hawaii Today

Children with parents who dropped out of school are more likely to drop out of school themselves, according to a national study.

Hoping to prevent such a domino effect by reducing its number of dropouts, Kealakehe High School is opening an on-campus childcare program for teen parents.

"Our primary goal is to ensure teen parents will continue with their education and get promoted to the next grade levels, or graduate from high school," said Kealakehe Principal Wilfred Murakami. "Childcare has been a major impediment for these teen parents to finish their high school education; we hope this program will greatly alleviate if not eliminate the issue."

The school was awarded federal funds this year to create the program as an extension of the state's Graduation, Reality and Dual-Role Skills (GRADS) program. Its creators hope the childcare center will not only keep students in school but instill good parenting skills.

The program will offer full-day and full-service childcare for students enrolled at the school and in the GRADS program. Childcare services will not be open to the public. About six to 10 students were in enrolled in GRADS last year at any given time.

School staff and volunteers rolled up their sleeves on Saturday to prepare the room for the upcoming school year, which begins July 31. Lau said Kealakehe's partnership with Family Support Services of West Hawaii's Early Head Start Program and the Department of Human Services made it possible to create a high-quality childcare space.

"We hope (the program) will give the students parenting skills and life skills. We want to help them realize the importance of education and hopefully prevent future pregnancies," said Nem Lau, Kealakehe Career and Technical Education Coordinator.

Parents in the program must meet a set of standards, such as arriving 30 minutes prior to the start of school to settle their child, in order to receive support, said Lau.

"It's not like they can drop of their baby and go to the beach," Lau said with a laugh.

Children living with mothers who did not finish high school are two to three times as likely to drop out of school as children whose mothers obtained more schooling, according to the National Commission for Children.

"We jumped at the opportunity to partner with Kealakehe," said Early Head Start Director Ellen O'Kelly. "We kind of bring to the mix a really strong infant-toddler background, in terms of working with young moms and young dads."

O'Kelly added that the FSSWH would like to integrate its Fatherhood Initiative to encourage good parenting by fathers into the childcare program.

If Kealakehe's program fares well, the school could be approved for another three years of funding from the federal government through the state Department of Education. After the first three years, the school must seek other sources of funding to sustain the program. A similar childcare program has already been established at Konawaena High School.

While Kealakehe's primary goal is to help students graduate, Early Head Start hopes to infuse good parenting skills and inspire careers in early childhood education.

"We are hoping to give children a good, healthy start in life," said O'Kelly. "We want to see some level of participation by parents. We also hope some students gain an interest in childhood education as a career path or think about academic pursuits as they transition to college."

The program's creators hope it will address the great need for quality child care around the islands.

O'Kelly said Early Head Start recently completed a survey of childcare providers and found "very, very, few infant-toddler classrooms" available on the island and even fewer licensed or certified child care providers.

"There is just a void," she said. "We hope that this model, if successful, can be replicated."