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When Jenna de la Cruz discovered she was pregnant nearly two years ago, she hid her growing belly from her family by staying inside and not doing much of anything. Hiding her pregnancy from classmates at Salt Lake City's Evergreen Junior High was another matter.
"A lot of my friends looked at me differently," she said. "They didn't stick around."
De la Cruz, however, was resolved to see her situation through. Realizing she needed an atmosphere that would allow her to focus on her studies away from peers, she enrolled in Granite School District's Young Parents Program, a high school program for pregnant teens and young mothers that has seen a dramatic increase in enrollment. Four years ago, according to principal and director Bev Dopita, the school served 55 students. This year the school carried a total enrollment of 120, with 80 more on a waiting list.
A Utah Department of Health report released Tuesday shows that Utah's teen birth rate rose from 29 births for every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2005 to 31 births per 1,000 girls of the same age group in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available.
That is lower than the national rate of 42 births per 1,000 girls, but represents the first time in 10 years that Utah's rate has risen.
Some parts of the state - downtown Ogden, South Salt Lake, Rose Park and Glendale - have teen birth rates exceeding the national average.
In the Granite District, administrators are looking to expand the Young Parents Program to address demand, either by relocation, building on site, or adding yet more portable classrooms, said Claudia Thorum, who oversees the program.
Nothing's been decided yet, however, she said.
De la Cruz's pregnancy was induced a month early because of complications, and she returned to classes despite having postpartum depression. She had to figure out how to hold a pencil along with a bottle as she listened to teachers' lectures.
Now 17, she graduated a year early and has two scholarships waiting, one to enroll at Salt Lake Community College and another for her planned transfer to the University of Utah, where she hopes to study to become a teacher.
She has no regrets about keeping her child.
"Before I had my daughter, I didn't even know what I wanted to do," de la Cruz said. "Everything in life happens for a reason. I don't think I made a mistake because I wouldn't be where I am now without her."
Housed in an anonymous-looking brick building at the end of a residential street in West Valley City, the Young Parents Program is chock-full of similar stories. Few have taken such fortunate turns as de la Cruz's, but Dopita notes that the school's graduation rate has risen steadily every year to a present rate of 74 percent.
Strollers are parked in the halls and the cries of infants are heard behind nursery doors, so this isn't your traditional high school. But with computer labs, textbooks and a small cafeteria, the 30-year-old program is school all the same, where learning continues despite the change to parenthood. Students may be excused from class more often given the pressing needs of their babies or, as happened not so long ago, the onset of labor in the middle of a history lesson.
Dopita said the school receives adequate funding from the district given enrollment growth, but space is an issue. The school is committed to keeping mothers and infants up to 6 months old in close proximity.
After that, it must provide two child-care rooms for every classroom. Four portable classrooms sitting in the back of the building give Dopita's school some breathing room. "If we took current enrollment plus the waiting list, we could use 14 [portable classrooms]," she said.
Students said they're grateful for a school where they can share parenting tips and offer one another support.
Liliana Juarez, a 17-year-old from Kearns, said that before becoming pregnant, she often skipped school to party. Her 18-month-old daughter, Xitlaly, plus the Young Parents Program, has put her life back on track. "She [Xitlaly] needs a better life than me being a dropout with a $6-an-hour job," Juarez said.