’’It felt such a loss to miss those high school years’’ ... Jenna will soon finish year 12.

''It felt such a loss to miss those high school years'' ... Jenna will soon finish year 12. Photo: Adam Hourigan

WHEN Jenna dropped out of school halfway through year 7, no one thought to question too deeply. She was just an unfortunate 13-year-old who became pregnant, and her stepfather assured the authorities she would be educated at home.

But for Jenna (not her real name), that was the end of school.

Her childhood had ended even earlier when her stepfather started to sexually abuse her. He became her sole carer - and won custody - after her mother left.

To the world he looked like a kind stepfather with a wayward adolescent. In fact he was a pedophile who had fathered her baby.

It would be years before the man, now in his 40s, was uncovered and jailed until 2015 for sexual offences against children - but not before he made Jenna pregnant again, at 16. He had ensnared her in a damaging psychological dependence.

"In his mind we were a couple and I believed what he said," Jenna said.

Despite her experiences, Jenna, now 18, is finishing year 12 this year at Maclean TAFE, undertaking the equivalent of the HSC called the tertiary preparation course.

She has studied maths, English, science and humanities and aims to go to university next year to do a bachelor of primary education to become a teacher.

"Education is a big thing for me,'' Jenna said. ''My older daughter starts school next year and I just hope she loves it and makes the most of it.''

But in overcoming such hurdles to complete her education, Jenna is the exception rather than the rule. A report to be published next month shows that only 35 per cent of 18-year-olds in foster care or out-of-home care finish high school, compared with almost 75 per cent of the general population.

Jacqui Reed, the chief executive of CREATE, an organisation that represents young people in out-of-home care, and publisher of the report, said young people from disruptive or abusive backgrounds, and unstable foster placements, often found it hard to fit into mainstream schools. They needed alternatives.

Jenna gave birth to a second child before locals' suspicions were aroused and the Department of Community Services was alerted. She was eventually sent to the Red Cross Young Parents' Program, a residential centre in Coogee, for a year.

With the help of volunteer tutors, the Red Cross education officer and psychologists, Jenna completed her school certificate. In one year she made the leap from year 7 to year 10. "She engaged 100 per cent," said Anne King, the program manager.

Dianne Nixon, manager of the education program at UnitingCare Burnside, said the state had 25 "fantastic" teachers who specialised in helping children in out-of-home care placements. "We need more of them," she said.

Ms Reed said there was concern about the impact of new state and federal policies to raise the school leaving age to the end of year 10, make further education or training compulsory until the age of 17, and deprive early school leavers of the youth allowance if not in education or training. ''It will be hard for them to survive if they lose the youth allowance,'' Ms Reed said.

Now living with her daughters aged five and two, and a supportive, newly found aunt and uncle, Jenna says: ''It felt such a loss to have missed those high school years. That's why I'm so dedicated now to learning.''