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Letter: Closing P-Schools Will Not Help Pregnant Teens (New York Times)

To the Editor:

Re “New York’s Schools for Pregnant Girls Will Close,” front page, May 24: As the Department of Education acknowledges, too many pregnant and parenting students are denied access to the educational opportunities they deserve. Closing the “P-Schools” will not fix this problem.

The DOE must develop a comprehensive plan to provide the educational and social services they need, both during and after their pregnancies. Without such a plan, many pregnant and parenting students will continue to be pushed out of schools, channeled into inappropriate educational environments and subjected to harassment and discrimination.

To truly enable pregnant students and young parents to continue their education, we must ensure that they receive our full support—and school personnel must be trained to provide it. We hope that the Department of Education fulfills its legal obligations by creating an aggressive plan to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting students. This is essential to their futures and to the health and well-being of their babies.

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