Wait a second. If someone has a disability, then Federal Law allows for them to have an entire range of accomodations to help them through school; up to and including tutors and computers for free. It also allows them to stay in a public high school until age 21.
It is common that the breakfast and lunch that the kids get at school are the only meals they will have.
Also, I am a public high school teacher and most of my kids are the first ones in their families to graduate. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get up and go somewhere in the morning when the rest of your family is still asleep...and may have no plans to get up AT ALL during the day? That is why I call some of my students EVERY MORNING to wake them up, because graduating is important to both of us, even if it doesn't matter to their parents. I have done this for six years, and I even call on days that *I* am sick and am not going in.
My point is that there is NO EXCUSE for someone not to graduate. I agree with the article and firmly believe that if someone chooses not to, chances are they are choosing to live in poverty.
Good for you for playing that role in these children's lives
Unfortunately I think most schools do not have teachers, or at least enough teachers, who would do this. You are changing the equation for many children and giving them some of the protective factors that are helping them to succeed. It is their luck that they have a teacher like you, but other children just aren't as lucky. And I'm sure that despite your best efforts there are some kids who
choose to not accept your help, but we'd have to know much more about their relationships and history to know whether or not they are really just making bad choices or if they just have so much negative stuff/people in their lives that they cannot overcome it. Likewise, a child with developmental disabilities can really only take
full advantage of the accommodations if there's a caregiver who's able and willing to seek them out and support the child with additional attention.
My 2 siblings and I are a perfect example of this... we were born into a middle class family and I had two great, loving parents, and then, when we were 9, 7, and 5, there was a horriffic event that killed my dad and three others... my mom was a sahm and we suddenly had no income in addition to the stress/trauma of his death, she later remarried a horrible man who made our lives very difficult, etc.
I could say that my sister and I made better choices and that's why we're living more comfortably than my brother is now; I could also point out the dozens of very poor choices that my brother has made that have led directly to his current impoverished status and all the good choices that my sister and I have made that have led to our current benefits in life. But to focus just on our choices ignores so many other factors, mediating factors that have made it more likely that we make the choices that we do. For ex, my sister and I were simply born with better cognitive capabilities than my brother. We were also not eye-witnesses to the tragedy (research shows that trauma and chronic stress impact brain functioning/development), so while we were definitely impacted by his death, certainly not to the extent my brother was. We were also younger and are girls and therefore he got the lion's share of the maltreatment from my step-dad. And there were so many other factors that for one reason or another, none of which were his fault, my brother just did not have some of the advantages/protective factors that my sister and I did and that's why he is more likely to make such poor choices.
Like I posted previously, not everyone who has been through trauma and maltreatment make such poor choices as my brother, but it is so much more difficult for them to make good choices, so any generalized statement such as "just finish school and you'll avoid poverty" just is not that simple. And I say all of this not to offer excuses for my brother or other people who continually make poor choices that negatively impact their lives, but just to explain why it's more likely and understandable that certain people have a very hard time making good choices, through no fault of their own. My brother is still responsible for his choices and he's the only one who can change the direction of his life, but I hope that I'm never narcissistic enough to think that I am where I am just because of my choices and hard work... I was given better tools to handle our hard life, plain and simple.
I would make this first on the list!
:
heck the cost of that stupid breakfast in the castle sets me off. The cost of the 
