BOISE, Idaho — There is a new high school in Boise for pregnant and parenting teenagers. Cardinal Academy Public Charter School is located on the Salvation Army's recently completed Booth Campus on Emerald Avenue.
Cardinal Academy is a free public charter school that offers these students in 9th-12th grade, ages 14-21, the opportunity to get their education and get the support they need to parent while they receive their diploma.
"Cardinal is such an amazing resource because they have daycare on-site that parents can utilize and not worry about where their child is while they are at school. They can eat lunch with their child so they can have that sense of doing their part of being there during the day, even while they are getting their education," she told KTVB. "We will also have doctors on-site coming to help the students. So they don't even have to leave for their checkups, ultrasounds, etc. We will have counselors on-site once a week or so to help be there for the students, too."
Cardinal co-founder and director Emily Bergstrom says the goal is simple for these teen parents.
"We want to wrap them in services that they need in order to find success. There had been a pregnant and parenting school in Boise for many years, and it was changing into something different and we were given the opportunity to open a new school," Bergstrom said. "Teen pregnancy is actually down quite a bit, so when they made that decision, we were given the opportunity to create a charter school to take its place. This gave us an opportunity to take all the things we loved about the former pregnant and parenting teen school and expand them and make them even stronger."
To read more of Maggie O'Mara's article, please click here.
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