by Justin Slaughter, SF4Tay.org Communications Coordinator
For the most part, Hilltop Special Service Center, or Hilltop, runs like an ordinary high school. But through a partnership with Family Agency of San Francisco and SFUSD, Hilltop differs from ordinary high schools in that it offers expectant and parenting students a unique learning environment tailored not only to earn a diploma, but also to raise a family.
For our SF4TAY newsletter focusing on expectant and parenting young people, we speak with current Hilltop head counselor Patricia Keehan and former Teenage Pregnancy & Parenting Program (TAPP) administrator Charlene Clemens about her fight to stop the elimination of the California School Age Families Education (Cal-SAFE) Program budget, Hilltop’s state funding.
Nestled in an old school building in the Mission and Potrero Hill neighborhood, Hilltop’s students are 14 to 19 years-olds who transferred from conventional middle and high schools due to pregnancy, usually between 60-100 students a year.
Ideally, a student enrolls at Hilltop in the first trimester of her pregnancy, takes credit recovery or comparable courses on track towards a high school diploma, and then returns to her former school to graduate. Of the students that do not return to their former school, close to 20 graduate directly from Hilltop every year.
On top of education, Hilltop cares for its students’ children before and after birth. On-site, the Teenage Pregnancy & Parenting Program (TAPP) provides weekly case-management for the young mother to provide all the child’s needs. Hilltop teaches birth prep classes and offers the opportunity for each mother to find a birthing coach, or DULA. After birth, Hilltop’s child nursery provides basic care and pre-K development for the child. Hilltop’s Young Family Resource Center (YFRC) also offers free peer-to-peer support for the school’s young parents.
“What we love to see is former students graduate then come back to work with current students,” head counselor Patricia tells me. One former Hilltop student, Veronica Garcia, has spearheaded the creation of a Moms Making a Change empowerment group to support other young mothers like her to set goals, save money, build self-confidence, find education, get a job, or apply to college.
In addition to Veronica’s MMAC group, Hilltop’s Teen Resources to Achieve Positive Practices (T-RAPP) initiative outreaches to young people in San Francisco middle school and high school classrooms to talk about early pregnancy prevention and the hardships of teen parenting (see our interview with T-RAPP counselor and CTAB member Nikia here).
As important as Hilltop’s services are to San Francisco’s expectant and parenting students like Veronica and Nikia, significant funding for state-wide programs like Hilltop is in jeopardy.
In his latest proposed state budget, Governor Jerry Brown is proposing to eliminate the California School Age Families Education (Cal-SAFE) Program. Housed in the California Department of Education, Cal-SAFE supports expecting or parenting students to go to high school, earn a GED, or enter college, and at the same time support their child’s development and education across California—including Hilltop.
“Governor Brown thinks he’s doing the right thing with local control of categorical educational funding,” says Charlene, the former administrator at San Francisco’s TAPP who is now fighting to save Cal-SAFE’s funding. “Since most stakeholders don’t understand how challenging it is for young mothers and fathers to go to a mainstream high school, the proposal to eliminate Cal-SAFE is absolutely the wrong thing.”
Charlene points out Cal-SAFE’s impressive outcomes measured from independent studies to show that Cal-SAFE’s elimination is unwarranted and “can only be deemed a financial decision.” The independent evaluation shows positive Cal-SAFE outcomes state-wide in all legislative goal areas. According to independent outcome analysis for example, the statewide repeat birth rate in the Cal-SAFE program is 8%, half the national average of 16%.
In order to fight the elimination of Cal-SAFE funding, Charlene and allies have done information sharing and education up and down the state, spoken out at the school boards, and have created local support. “The Cal-SAFE program has everything in place, so in a sense, if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” Charlene says.
Charlene’s not alone in her fight. In the last week of February, State Assembly Member Tom Ammiano has authored and introduced AB 1152 which would preserve Cal-SAFE as a model program.
As far as its affect on San Francisco’s expectant and parenting young people, the elimination of Cal-SAFE may not be the end of Hilltop.
“Since here in San Francisco we feel we are loved and so appreciated in the school district,” Charlene tells me, “we feel we might get continued support even under the current Governor’s proposal; however, there is no guarantee. And, certainly, statewide, there is no guarantee.”
When asked why she continues to do this work , Charlene reminisces on her past position in a youth employment organization where she worked with a lot of young mothers who were ready to get a GED. Charlene’s direct service inspired here to work on behalf of expectant and parenting young people as a life vocation.
“A particular incident that sold me for this work for life,” Charlene says, 
“was when a 28 year-old mother, with her 14 year-old daughter in-hand, came running in to my office screaming ‘Ms. Charlene, I got my GED!’
Back at the Hilltop office, I asked head counselor Patricia the same question as to why she continues this work. Like Charlene, Patricia’s direct work with expectant and parenting students lead her to stay at Hilltop year after year as a teacher then counselor. Patricia became head counselor when staff saw the need for someone on-site to know the education and social service system as whole, in and out of Hilltop’s classroom, on top of how to teach or and counsel.
I mentioned the proposed budget cuts and asked what she thinks may happen to Hilltop. “Well, we haven’t got that call yet,” Patricia replies.