In nearly half of states, including Idaho, Nevada, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah, the definition of excused absences is not not broad enough to include pregnant and parenting students (Kenney) . This usually means that schools are allowed to make policies that are confusing, vague, and often berating the student because absences are not excused, even in the case of childbirth. You don't have to be a mechanical engineer to calculate outcomes for pregnant students facing these situations. They're essentially fighting an uphill battle in this scenario that, unfortunately, is playing out in high schools across the country. Students who attend high school work for a variety of reasons, to buy a car, to buy that new album on iTunes, or to have money to spend time with friends. While most high school students manage to effectively balance their studies and work while succeeding on both fronts, unfortunately, a staggering number of students drop out of school to work so they can earn money to help their families . Using data from the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, researchers at the Urban Institute found that nearly a third of the 563,000 teen dropouts left school to work (Douglas-Gabriel p..