School drop outs get second chance as adults

We bring you stories of some adults who never got to finish high school, their plans derailed by life circumstances. But some are finding programs designed to give them another shot at an academic foundation. This report, part of the series, The American Classroom. It's busy here in Taisha Kennedy's home. And playing out is something any busy parent can relate to. Brushing teeth, dressing, combing hair, then out the door to school. But it's not your ordinary school. We are on our way to school for me and daycare for the girls. Because the classroom bell rings for Taisha. School is for me to get my high school diploma and the daycare center which the school provides, which is amazing, so it makes it easier for parents like me to get that diploma. The 33-year-old attends the Goodwill Excel Center in downtown Baltimore, a city where roughly one out of three students don't graduate high school. This is a place for second chances for 150 students who never graduated. My mother and my brother, they dropped out of high school and I followed along right with them. I will be breaking the generational curse in my family. Geraldine Scott, 73 years young, says it's finally her time. I have dreams. I'm going to be a writer. I have a story to tell. I had children when I was a teenager. I had to be a parent. I had two children by the time I was 18 years old, so school wasn't possible. There are more than three dozen Excel centers around the country. One of several programs nationwide offering former dropouts an education at no cost. This program provides a path for you. It does. Taisha was one of more than 420,000 students who dropped out in the 2006-2007 school year. Since then, a staggering 7 million or more young people have withdrawn from high school. When students don't graduate from high school, it makes it very difficult for them to access job opportunities. Research shows the median weekly income for someone who doesn't complete high school is roughly 25% less than a high school grad. Even those with GEDs typically earn slightly less. It's very important that learners are able to complete school so that they don't run into those challenges. Fortunately, there are a lot of programs across the country that provide that support to adults to get their degree, which is beneficial. Taisha, who works nights, says coming to Excel is the first time in a long time she's caught a break. I've been trying to get my GED for a while, but life has happened in between. There was no support. I kept having children. No support. I put it on the back burner for so long. How old were you when you had your first child? 15. Yes. Being a parent is never easy. How hard is it when you're a parent at 15? It's really hard. At 15, you're still trying to figure out who you are, and then you're still trying to figure out what you want to do with yourself, and then you have a child. All of that changes, because it's no longer about you. It's about your child. Taisha says she leaned on her parents for help. I had support, but it was not a lot of support. I was in school. I was working, and then I had to choose working, because I had to take care of my child, which I don't regret, because I would do it again if I had to. She would go on to have six more children, including one who was murdered by a boyfriend who also abused her. Despite immense heartache, she says these experiences made her stronger. I'm only 33. I've been through a lot that a lot of 33-year-olds haven't been through. So, the fact that I survived, and it was a long road that I had to get through, it humbled me. Like Taisha, many students here face tough challenges when they were children. I dropped out three years ago. Three times, actually. Ninth grade, 10th grade, and 11th grade. And I'm back to receive something that I didn't have. 22-year-old Shamar Rice says he was bullied in school and struggled to stay motivated. He's now chasing his dream of being an actor, seen here in a small part on HBO Max's Perry Mason. Let's think. It's comics. We'll get them. I bought them. What is the pay? Pay. Recently accepted to a school of performing arts in Los Angeles, getting his diploma is the only thing holding him back. I don't have my transcript just yet, so this high school will be able to send that off to the college for me, and that's going to be completing the last requirement. We want them to know that we see them for who they are and that their past does not define them. Ashley Gaines, CA, is a life coach, acting as a part social worker and part career advisor, helping students here achieve more than their diplomas. This is what this property is all about. For a lot of our students, the thing that really held them back is that many of the people in their lives did not have that high school diploma themselves. So we have mothers and daughters who are here, and we see that it's kind of a pattern within the families, and they really want to break those cycles. They're turning over a new leaf, and we see that in them. For Taisha, making it to her high school graduation means she can walk taller, dream bigger, and so much more. I want to have that self-accomplishment myself. I want to be able to say, I completed it, I did it, and I want to have a better job. I love my job, but I don't want to leave this earth and know that it's like, oh, she just had children. She didn't finish school. She just had children. Say bye-bye. Now it's like, she had children, but she also went back to school. She completed school. Our thanks to the good people we met in my hometown of Baltimore and across the country. Those adults vowing to stay the course and achieve their dreams, and the counselors and educators who support them. You can also catch the ABC News live special, The American Classroom, which debuts tomorrow night at 8.30 p.m. Eastern on your favorite streaming platform. Hi, everyone. George Stephanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights, and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel, and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.