Putting Troubled Moms Back on Track

May 18, 2009— -- It's springtime, and that means longer days, beach getaways and school graduations.

As high school and college students prepare to transition into the next phase of their lives, there's one school in Washington, D.C., that's granting not only certificates, but second chances.

Melissa Barret has been waiting for graduation day for a long time. There are the traditional caps and gowns, but the ceremony is held in a courtroom, not an auditorium.

That's because Barret and the seven other members of her class are graduating from the Family Treatment Court Program, a school for young mothers who have had legal problems that is administered through the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

As the music begins to play, Barret and her classmates march in. The front row is filled not with college professors, but local judges. They're judges providing Barret and her seven classmates another opportunity to be trusted with her own kids, after drugs turned her into what the court considered an abusive mother.

For Barret, it's a day to celebrate.

"I made it through. I got my baby back," she said. "I'm happy. I'm real happy."

One of Barret's classmates wanted to express her feelings through a poem.

"I was going down the wrong road," she started.

That was all she managed to get out before her emotions took over.

These eight women turned their lives around thanks to a program that got them off the streets and into a dormitory.

Once inside, they had just six months to do it all -- kick the drug addiction, receive therapy, go through parenting classes and prove they were ready for the responsibilities that come along with being a mother.

A key part of the rehabilitation process is bringing the children, who were at one point nearly in foster care, to the dormitory to live with their mothers once they've kicked their drug habit.

Once inside, the children go through enormous changes themselves.

The mothers and up to four of her children live together in suites. They sleep in the same area and there is a dining hall where the women and their children can eat together.