Homeless in the Classroom
An estimated 1.2 million homeless students are trying to get an education in our nation’s schools, and those are only the ones we know of.
Over the past number of years, the problem has been growing in the U.S., and here in Mid-Missouri.
There are some resources in place. The question is: Do we have enough to take care of what’s sometimes referred to as “America’s Youngest Outcasts?”
At 26-thousand, the number of homeless students in our state equals roughly 60-percent of the entire population of Jefferson City. Donna Cash is the state coordinator of the Homeless Education Program the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She says, “You wouldn’t have thought we’d have that many homeless children in Missouri… But we do have a large population of homelessness in Missouri.”
Homelessness is the main reason a student leaves school before graduation. Some stats show homeless students are nearly 90 percent more likely to dropout. Since a high school diploma is required to even get some minimum wage-making jobs, these disadvantaged students are more likely to live their lives in poverty and in need of government and community assistance.
Since the Great Recession of 2008, about 62-percent of Americans have no emergency savings, making the disturbing adage “only a paycheck away from homelessness” more real than ever.
A homeless mother of students in Columbia Public Schools says, “In the blink of an eye, things happen. Things change and you can be where we’re at today. I never thought I’d stay in a shelter with my kids or, you know, be homeless or anything like that.” But now, this mother, her husband and their 3 children live in a Columbia motel room. We’ll call her “Gloria.”
She says she’s never had to ask for a handout before. Gloria says she and her husband had jobs, owned property and provided for their children. Now, they live in uncertain and even scary times. But she says her young children are getting what they need at school. “The schools, they were very helpful in like getting the kids school supplies, signed up for free lunches, right away and buy stuff they needed…and transportation.”
The basics are provided through the McKinney-Vento Act. Its purpose is to help disadvantaged young people get some of the supplies and necessary tools to get their education. “Gloria” say it really helps.
Donna Cash says McKinney-Vento covers items as small but as important as backpacks, clothes, supplies. It also can include medical and dental services. “Anything extraordinary or necessary for that child to be successful in their education,” says Cash.
“Gloria” says the way Columbia Public Schools administers McKinney-Vento is a lifesaver. She says, “I felt relieved. It was like a…like a ton of bricks off my shoulders.”
Most of the needs of students that qualify for McKinney-Vento are paid for by Title One funds. Title 1 is a federal program through the U.S. Department of Education with the purpose of bridging the gap between low-income students and other students.
One of the expenses not covered by Title 1 is transportation. With nearly 200 homeless students in Columbia Public Schools, it’s expensive. Regardless, C-P-S Superintendent Dr. Peter Stiepleman says when a student loses a permanent residence, that child still needs to get to school regularly and on time. Stiepleman says, “We spend 11 million dollars on transportation in the Columbia Public Schools. We get 2 million from the state. So, 9 million is paid for by our local community. And some of that is absolutely due to 200 that we’re busing all over the district to get them back to their home schools. (The homeless student issue) is a growing concern. One that I think our local, not just our local legislators because it’s a federal law, right, that we be able to talk with our reps, to be able to talk about some of the burdens that we are faced with. We will always try to make the best decision for a child to provide the best consistency.”
So far this year, the Jefferson City Public School System says 61 students are benefiting from McKinney Vento. That’s a lower number than last school year’s total of 195… but this school year is far from over.
Donna Cash says hope doesn’t just come in the form of tax dollars. She uses the Sedalia School District as an example of community cooperation. She says, “I think they have a really combined effort, not only with the school district, but all the city involved. Their churches have a program where people can go in and get whatever they need. If it’s diapers, if it’s a mattress today, or if it’s water. So they have addressed their homeless population and I think that really did impress me. It really did bring home the fact that they as a community knew they had a problem and they weren’t afraid to address it. They took it on and everybody’s on board.”
During these tough days for “Gloria” and her family…she agrees, saying “It does take a village and I couldn’t have done it without all the staff of Columbia and the school district and all the great people.
Carla London, the supervisor of Student and Family Advocacy at Columbia Public Schools say she’s never seen a case of someone trying to defraud the homeless student safety-net system, but she would take any complaint seriously to ensure the resources are available and used only by the students and families that need them.
