CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Pregnancy, Education, and Parenting (PEP) Program has been around for over 20 years. It is designed and focused to help school-aged parents remain in school by offering child care and assistance in planning a career.
The Corpus Christi Independent School District childcare center offers services to infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children.
Currently, the program offers child care and resources to FIVE CCISD campuses: Cole, Miller, Moody, Carroll, and Ray High School.
Case manager for CCISD's pregancncy related services, Racheka Hook, said the district is currently offering its services to 100 students, and about 45 of those are expecting.
"We provide resources for them, parenting classes. Also, our goal is for them to graduate and see them in school. We help them with whatever barrier might keep them from coming to school, such as child care and transportation," Hook said.
This program not only serves teen mothers but also teen fathers.
Now, 18-year-old Jayla Darrington is a senior at Miller High School and said if it wasn't for the help of this program, she wouldn't be where she is today — about to graduate.
“I think it’s a good resource for us teen moms because when I got pregnant, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. But they have a daycare so it made it easier on me, knowing that I would be able to bring my baby here with me and not have to worry about who is going to watch her,” Darrington said.
She added that this program provided her with the help she needed to push through and not give up.
“I remember before I had her I wasn’t the best, but after I had her I guess I got more mature, and I really thought life isn’t all about being cool or fitting in," she said."There is always more to life.”
More to life, like her education, she said that at first, it was a little bit challenging to balance school life, mom life, and life itself.
“We help, we talk to them about you know what colleges they want to go to, what trade school, what job they want to get and refer them to community resources outside of the district so that they can be successful after they graduate, ”Hook added.
Hook said that everyone's barriers are different but that they are always there for the students whenever they need them. She did mention that there are more students at this start of the school year than usual.
Darrington added that being a mother has changed her for the better and now she thinks about her future and how she is going to work hard to provide for her daughter.
"They are going to love you when nobody else does," she said.
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