This is where the school and its teachers should intervene. Students who lack parental support and role models as children are less likely to succeed in life. Children from single-parent families are more likely to use and abuse drugs (Hoffmann “The Community Context of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use”) and are twice as likely to commit suicide and/or have a psychiatric illness (www.webmd .com). One of the ways teachers can reach and influence these students is through after-school programs. Fifty-seven percent of students from single-parent families are enrolled in some form of afterschool program in grades 1 through 5 (Working Families and Afterschool A Special Report from America After 3 PM: A Household Survey on Afterschool in America 2). Children often learn their social skills by watching their parents interact with others. Later in life, these can influence the jobs they are offered and received as their potential employer evaluates how they communicate in an interview or in their interactions with others. Raymond