Case 1

Here is the case

Susanna is 15 years old. The city where she lives has four schools: two elementary, one middle, and one high school. There are about 1,500 students enrolled in the city/county school district and about 450 in the local high school that Susanna is attending. For the past six months, Susanna has been living with her boyfriend and his parents. Prior to this, she left her mother’s home and lived on the streets. She is pregnant and her boyfriend’s parents want her to move out of their home. Her father lives in a town with his girlfriend, about 50 miles from the city. Her mother lives outside the city with Susanna’s baby brother. Right now Susanna’s mother is receiving child support for the two children. Susanna wants to have a portion of the child support so that she can find a place of her own to live. Her mother says that the only way that Susanna can have access to that money is to move back home. Susanna refuses to move back in with her mother.

You receive a call from the behavior specialist at Susanna’s high school. Susanna’s mother is at the school demanding that Susanna be withdrawn from school. Susanna’s mother indicates that Susanna will be moving in with her and will be enrolling in another school district.

Currently Susanna is not doing very well in school. She misses school and she tells the helper it is because she is tired and that she does not have good food to eat. She has not told the helper that she is looking for a place to live. Right now she is failing two of her classes and she has one B and two Ds. Her boyfriend has missed a lot of school, too.