Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy?
In poor rural counties, there is not much for teens to do with an extra day off, a fact that worries health officials. (AP Image)
A big question about four-day school weeks — a budget solution that several Georgia systems adopted to cut costs — was what students would do with that extra day off from classes.
An Elbert County teen health center is hoping that the answer won’t turn out to be have sex and babies at higher rates.
Take a look at this interesting article in the Georgia Health News. Here is an excerpt:
“Elbert has had the problem of teen pregnancy for a long time,” said Adriane Strong, the adolescent health educator of the Teen Matters Clinic in Elberton. “The teen birth rate was higher several years ago, then it came down. But recently, it may have gone back up,” Strong said.
“Around 20 teens aged 15 to 18 visit our clinic every week,” said Strong, “The majority of them are seeking services including birth control and STD testing and treatment.”
Strong suspects that three-day weekends could contribute to the rebound of the teen pregnancy rate. “There is a large gap of time when teens are unsupervised on Mondays,” said Strong, “That may bring the potential for them to do things that they may not do when they are occupied with school, though they tell me they just stay at home or do babysitting.”
Lack of adult supervision is an established factor in studies of risky behaviors among teenagers, according to Matthew Lee Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior at UGA’s College of Public Health. “When students have additional unsupervised time, it may facilitate opportunities to engage in risky sexual behaviors,” said Smith.
Another factor may be the shortage of safe, constructive alternatives for teenagers in this rural county. “We have no malls, no movie theater, no bowling alley in Elbert,” said Strong. “There isn’t a lot for teens to do. When they have more time on their hands, we really cannot control what may happen.”
The last time the Northeast Georgia Health District surveyed teens about behavior and risk, in 2003, about 38 percent of Elbert County’s 15- to 19-year-olds said they were sexually active. Of those, 67 percent had multiple partners and 25 percent said they did not use condoms.
More surprisingly, Elbert County had a teen birthrate of 53 per 1,000 teens during the years 1996 to 2001. That was higher than the national rate, showing why teen pregnancy continues to be a top health concern in northeast Georgia, according to the BART survey.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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69 comments Add your comment
high school teacher
May 2nd, 2012
10:35 am
According to a teacher who worked there until this school year, Haralson County has seen an increase in teen pregnancy since going to the 4 day school week.
mystery poster
May 2nd, 2012
10:50 am
@V
Denial. It ain’t just a river in Egypt!
Ron F.
May 2nd, 2012
11:06 am
Okay, I can’t believe we’re even having this debate. Kids’ attitudes about and particpation in the act are a matter of upbringing, not school attendance. If they’re going to do it, a day in school isn’t going to stop them. They’re idle because their parents don’t make them do anything or trust them and let them stay out until all hours of the night. Mine think I’m mean because of the porch light rule at my house. And I hear kids, on school nights, still out after dark. That is NOT the school’s fault or our problem to fix.
I read somewhere that the economy also impacts this. The parents are away from home more working extra or are disengaged because of stress and worry. The kids get stressed and guess what? They go looking for a release. Another day in the building at school can’t fix that.
Geez, next thing they’ll be blaming global warming on the energy production to keep schools running and the awful bus pollution.
williebkind
May 2nd, 2012
11:18 am
I have always believed women were more motivated than men to accomplish goals and fulfill needs. Sometimes I even believe women are smarter. But that must not come to be until they reach college age. Can you believe that young girls do not believe you can get pregnant having sex. Or they are complete risk takers. Some of course blame the guys but blaming the guys does not put the hardships on them as it does the girls. How can girls not know in today’s times? Do they not care because they can run down to the local butcher and get an abortion? One extra day to do it will not increase it what is already happening.
Richard
May 2nd, 2012
11:19 am
I thought abstinence education was supposed to stop teen pregnancy.
Will
May 2nd, 2012
11:19 am
Why not take a more educated guess at this? Peach County went to a four day school week for a couple of years before abandoning this last year. Why not take a look at the teenage pregnancy rate in Peach County before and during this change in the school week? I certainly understand that what happens in one county is not a guarantee of what will happen in another county but using this data is better than blindingly guessing.
Grits
May 2nd, 2012
11:25 am
OK so have the school system deposit the monthly savings in a bank savings account and have it show up in an independent annual audit along with the teen pregnancy count. FAT CHANCE!!!!!
catlady
May 2nd, 2012
11:31 am
Sorry, Batgirl. Guess I got Murray and Chatooga mixed up!
gadem
May 2nd, 2012
11:31 am
I was having sex on school days too…so I dunno…
Ashley
May 2nd, 2012
11:43 am
The only birth-control I needed was a visit to my yankee cousin who had a baby before her sophomore year. Seeing her having to stay at home in July while other 15-16 year old enjoyed their summer, watching my aunt yell “get up” your child needs feeding , was the only visual I needed to keep my legs closed….as we use to say way back when, couple that with my mother shaking her head in despair was all the encouragement I need to reach for higher goals. My neighbor woman use to say “accidents are something you don’t see coming, but when it comes to a randy teenage boy I’ve got 20/20 vision. Doesn’t matter whether they go to school 4 or 5 days if there is no family nucleus or a household where women and teenage girls aren’t valued, pregnancy will happen especially when the grandmother , mother and daughter were all teen mothers.
mountain man
May 2nd, 2012
12:14 pm
“Murray County did not go to four day weeks”
Then why set up Murray County as an example of four day weeks? What would $300,000 per year be in percentage? 1%? 1/2% If they have a $30 million school budget, that would be 1%.
BADA BING
May 2nd, 2012
12:36 pm
On a related topic…….Moms, wait to buy that Prom dress. See what tattoos you will need to cover up after the Panama City Spring Break!
Once Again
May 2nd, 2012
1:10 pm
Given that shcools are little more than subsidized day-care centers for working parents, one would expect problems when the prisoners are let off the leash.
catlady
May 2nd, 2012
1:27 pm
I worked in Elbert County for a while. Lots of very poor, drug-adicted folks, both black and white. Very limited middle class. Girls saw having babies as a way to grow up. I worked with a 15 year old girl who had just had a baby. “Grandma” was a 30 year old illiterate person also. I couled foresee what was going to happen to that child before she was 15.
Solutions
May 2nd, 2012
1:59 pm
This just confirms my opinion that our school system is just an expensive baby sitting service provided to families, but paid for by property owners. It is time to end the property tax system of financing the school systems, and impose a tax on each and every child enrolled in the school system, a head tax if you will, so the beneficiaries of a public education, the child and his/her parents pay for that service, and not some third party such as moi! Let the families benefiting from the school system full fund said system, then maybe there will be some accountability.
hryder
May 2nd, 2012
2:43 pm
School should be scheduled six days per week, Monday through Saturday. Only off days would be when all levels(local, state, and federal) of government are closed for a holiday and Sundays. Doing this could permit greater use of facilities and hopefully an attainment of a more highly educated populus. Additionally, academic terms could be scheduled with a greater variety of factors considered such as climate, intelligence grouping, readiness, desired outcomes, etc.. Even more could be done if schools were open year round to further accelerate the process for those so inclined and also provide all schools, except administrators, the opportunity for more paid days of contract employment.
Very Scary!!!
May 2nd, 2012
6:43 pm
Wow! You are all so scary…I see the prevailing philosophy of everyone else being responsible for raising your kids is still going strong. I promise you, as a teacher, I’m already spending a lot of time trying to help your children learn responsibility and accountability. No worries about having to pay teachers for time not worked, our paychecks have been cut so much – furlough days – that most of us aren’t making what we would make for four days, so you’re getting a bargain – more days much less pay! Since MOST teachers put in WAY more hours than bell to bell, it would be great to have a four day work week; then I might have time to get a part time job! Bottom line, if you have never been a classroom teacher, you have NO idea of which you speak, so stop trying to act like you do!
Anonmom
May 2nd, 2012
7:32 pm
Few Points — Bill Nigut did a Frontline show in about 1992 about the sexual patterns of tweens (yes, tweens, not teens) out I-20 in Rockdale (I think — I’m doing this from memory, while I had a toddler….) — It was appalling — these tweens were watching and mimicing porn after school in very high-end neighborhoods (with security gates etc.) — white kids — and they showed sexual patterns and diseases (male and female) of prostitutes…. it was quite eye opening. My take away from the episode — which I’ve really done, I think, a good job with for my now teens — is that they are to have very little “down time” alone and we discuss condoms and birth control. We “hold court” and discuss how the boys must pay child support and how it is important for the boys to be with girls their age or older. We discuss the Duke lacrosse case and the Tennessee pizza guy case of examples of “guilty until proven innocent.” Secondly, abstinence doesn’t work — evidence “A” Sarah Palin’s daughter. Third, “teenager” as a concept was invented by a professor at Johns Hopkins in 1908 or 1909 — the harmones and the body have historically and are around the world treated as adults. You have grandparents and greatgrandparents who were married and traveling around the globe, alone, and having babies as teens. Teens go off to war. Teens have gone to work. Teens have created empires. Teens have been put in charge of empires. It’s only in America in the 20th and now 21st century that we “baby” our teens and our teens have these inconsistent mesages being received into their bodies and brain waves, along with very adult harmones and bodies. Then we wonder why they want to have sex and why they wind up in jail and make stupid decisions……
Ernest
May 3rd, 2012
9:38 am
on the other hand…:
Thanks for sharing the link about Chatooga County moving to a 4 day week. IMO, this blog should discuss their successes and question whether that could scale to larger school districts, such as those in the metro area.
I agree with the other posters that there is no correlation between the length of the school week and the teen pregnancy rate.