Maternity leave for high school students? Now that’s a policy issue that I’m certain every school board member is eager to address.

One day you might get your chance. For now, though, it’s the Denver school board that’s being asked by pregnant students to provide them with at least four weeks of maternity leave “so they can heal, bond with their newborns, and not be penalized for unexcused absences.”

That’s how The Denver Post reports it. And, after an initial reaction that varied between “you’ve got to be kidding” and “what’s the world coming to,” I think I see their point.

The Denver Public Schools has no system-wide policy concerning teen moms, the Post reports, and at one high school, students apparently are left with a bad choice: show up at school as soon as they’re out of the hospital—or be docked for unexcused absences.

Now, I don’t think high school students deserve a free pass for having a baby. But, then again, it does no one any good if there’s no accommodation or assistance given to an overwhelmed teen. We don’t need to add to the nation’s appalling dropout rate.

Of course, many schools have a handle on this issue. Some place pregnant students or new moms in specialized programs or run schools designed to work with these students. Others create individualized education plans for new moms or work more informally, bringing counselors, parents, and teens together to work out a reasonable strategy to keep the student in school.

In Denver, a district spokesperson said the district is looking to make its attendance policy “friendlier” to new moms, and school board member Michelle Moss got to the core of the issue: “Clearly, as a district, we have to look at what is going on with our young women. We’ve got to look at the birth-control issue and teen pregnancy and how we best help them deal with it and still graduate.”

That sounds about right. But I hope any policy change avoids the term “maternity leave.” It’s an expression that sounds like an entitlement. And, frankly, anything that makes teen pregnancy and motherhood seem normal and acceptable—as opposed to the personal tragedy it is—just doesn’t sit well.

Del Stover, Senior Editor