Starting next school year, TAPS Nursery located in Muscatine High School will close its doors for good due to a drop in teen pregnancy rates.
The nursery opened up back in 1990 where the hallways of MHS looked very different when it came to the number of teens getting pregnant.
"At one point many years back we were the worst in the state for the amount of teen pregnancies," says Muscatine Community YMCA Director of Family Programs, Diana Broderson.
Broderson says in the past years there have been 55 or more pregnant or parenting students in school. Now there are only three.
Broderson, along with Muscatine Superintendent Dr. Jerry Riibe contribute this drop in pregnancies largely to community and school education efforts.
"We have got to this success because of the prevention efforts we've been doing in our community. Prevention works. I mean it really does, and this has proved positive of that," says Broderson.
The nursery is a joint effort between Muscatine High, the YMCA, and Trinity Muscatine Public Health who all offer classes on health, character development, and teen parenting.
But prevention efforts in Muscatine won't stop there.
"We know we need to continue these efforts so that we don't end up with high rates of teen pregnancy in our community," says Broderson.
That money that used to fund the nursery will now be reallocated to other school programs.