MACY, Neb. - Joshlyn Parker, 16, a junior at Umonhon Nation High School, is an ambitious student who wants to graduate a semester early. She plans to move from the Omaha Reservation to New Mexico where she will attend college and pursue a career in nursing.

But Parker, a young mother, said she wouldn't be able to even finish high school if she didn't have access to child care at school.

Parker's six-month-old son, Mark, is enrolled at the in-school child care center, Shinga Zhinga, where she is able to visit and feed him throughout the school day.

Six-month-old Mark Parker, who is recovering from pneumonia, receives a breathing treatment at the Umonhon Nation Public School's in-school child care center. Director Patrea J. Eldridge said she makes sure student-parents, including Mark's mother Joshlyn Parker, 16, have access to medical services and food resources. Hilary Sorensen/NewsNetNebraska

Shinga Zhinga, which means "to save our children" in the Omaha language, offers child care, transportation and parenting classes to student-parents. The center is the only state-accredited child care program in Macy, a rural Thurston County community of about 1,000 people.

Principal David Friedli said there is a tremendous need for child care at the high school because teenage parenthood contributes to the school's high dropout rate, which in 2001-2002 was 10.5 percent, nearly four times the state average.

File name: Shinga Zhinga The in-school child care center, Shinga Zhinga, is located in a former home next to the Umonhon Nation Public School building. Inside, there is an infant room, a toddler room, a preschool room, a kitchen and two bathrooms. The room upstairs does not have electricity and is not used for child care. Hilary Sorensen/NewsNetNebraska

Friedli said the center is worth every dollar because it helps students stay in school, graduate and have healthy babies.

"It's all going to pay off," he said. "We know that ultimately those babies are our future students."