At 13 years old, Nickolaus Dent is his mother's primary caregiver.
He's responsible for the grocery shopping and cooking. He cleans the house. He does all the laundry.
His mother, Janine Helms, has been battling HIV for as long as Nickolaus can recall, and her health has deteriorated in the last couple of years. Nickolaus makes sure she takes her medication. He often helps her get dressed, and at times, he has helped her bathe.
Nickolaus' father died two years ago. Since then, ensuring Helms' well-being has been a full-time job for Nickolaus, leaving him with little energy to socialize or study.
"It does make it hard to pay attention in class," he said. "Helping her out is a bigger priority than going to school and getting (an) education, because I feel if I don't have her, I don't want to go to school. Whatever happens to her happens to me."
Nickolaus is just one of the estimated 10,000 youth caregivers living in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to the American Association of Caregiving Youth. The nonprofit, founded by county resident Connie Siskowski, was instrumental in bringing this previously unrecognized population to light in 2002, and it has since provided support to more than 500 area youths who are caring for an ill, disabled or aging family member.
"No child in the United States should have to drop out of school because of caregiving," said Siskowski, 65. "These children suffer silently behind closed doors. ... They don't have the help and the support and the recognition that they need."
Connie Siskowski knows firsthand what it's like to be a child and take care of a loved one.
According to a 2006 study conducted by Civic Enterprises for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 22% of high school dropouts in the United States leave school to care for a family member (PDF).
It's these children who Siskowski had in mind when her group started the Caregiving Youth Project at Boca Raton Middle School. The project, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to intervene early on in the academic lives of youth caregivers.