Each day a large number of children arrive at school mentally or emotionally unprepared to learn what is being taught. A wide range of factors can place young people at risk for persistent patterns of underachievement or social maladjustment. Some children were affected while still in the womb by alcohol or other drugs used by their pregnant mothers. Others have been abused or neglected. Gnawing hunger and medical problems make it difficult for some students to focus on what's occurring in the classroom.
Many immigrants are at risk for educational problems because they lack proficiency in English.
Still other children, particularly members of ethnic and racial minority groups, may feel caught between two distinctly different cultures. Some children grow up in families who have no homes at all or in families who, because of limited income, are forced to live in unsafe neighborhoods where the security most people associate with home is absent. Pregnant teens and teen parents also have a high risk of school failure or dropping out, as do youth with drug or alcohol problems. Increasingly, students also fear and have a sense of vulnerability about violence being directed toward them by other young people. These are just a few of the social and economic problems that can be barriers to the educational success of children and young people.