96% of teen mothers keep their babies. In Texas, a baby is born to a teen mother every 10 minutes. Births in Dallas under 17 years old in 2000 is approximately 2,100. 85% of teens with mentors will go on to secondary education in college or some type of technical school. Whereas, 20-30% of that same group will go on to college. Teen mothers complete less school and are more likely to have large families and are more likely to be single parents. Babies born to mothers aged 15-17 have less supportive and stimulating home environments, poorer health, lower congnitive development, worse educational outcomes, higher rates of behavior problems and higher rates of teen childbearing themselves. Only 5% of mothers on welfare are teenagers. However, a large proportion of women who begin childbearing as teenagers eventually end up on welfare and those who do tend to need assistance for a long period of time. 1,000,000 US teenagers become pregnant every year. 85% are unintentional and 2/3 of them are 18-19 year old women. The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the western industrialized world.  Teen pregnancy costs the US at least $9 billion annually and Texas $1 billion annually. Only 33% of adolescent mothers will graduate high school and only 1.5% will earn a college degree by age 30. Children of teen moms have lower birth weights, are more likely to perform poorly in school and are at greater risk of abuse and neglect. Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age.