"No child in the United States should have to drop out of school because of caregiving," said Siskowski, 65. "These children suffer silently behind closed doors. ... They don't have the help and the support and the recognition that they need."
According to a 2006 study conducted by Civic Enterprises for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 22% of high school dropouts in the United States leave school to care for a family member (PDF).
It's these children who Siskowski had in mind when her group started the Caregiving Youth Project at Boca Raton Middle School. The project, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to intervene early on in the academic lives of youth caregivers.
Special classes, led by a mental-health professional or social worker, cover topics such as coping with stress and anger, managing finances and setting goals.
Periodic field trips and overnight camps offer recreational, social and educational activities. There are home-care demonstrations and workshops.
The program also makes teachers and school administrators more aware of the children's extenuating circumstances and how they can lead to truancy, absenteeism and dips in academic performance.
The hope is to reduce the negative effects -- anxiety, depression and feelings of isolation -- that caregiving responsibilities can have on a child's mental, physical and emotional health.
huge numbers here