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Educating Homeless Kids
Schools Struggle to Comply with Federal Mandate
 Listen to Part One.
Listen to Part Two.
April 2, 2002 -- Public schools are required by law to provide for homeless children. But that doesn't mean they do.
The McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, passed in 1987, has gone largely unenforced. That has left thousands of homeless children attending multiple schools every year as they move from district to district. So the federal government is now telling school districts to adhere to the law or risk losing federal aid.
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Not surprisingly, homeless children have a harder time in school than their classmates.
Photo: George Ciolla |
The question becomes, how should schools go about helping homeless students? Should districts open all their schools to homeless kids, or should they create separate schools with special services?
In a two-part series for Morning Edition NPR reporters Claudio Sanchez and Wendy Kaufman look at the dire state of homeless children and the controversy over how public schools can best help them.
In Part One, Sanchez visits Orange County, Calif., where cheap motels serve as temporary sleeping quarters for thousands of transient families. As they move from place to place, the children must constantly change schools, setting them back ever further in their studies. Even though the law compels the schools to take homeless children regardless of their current address, many say they can't because they are too crowded already.
Homeless advocates say many districts, including those in Chicago, Fresno, and Houston, have figured out how to adhere to the law. Others disagree that there's been widespread compliance. The government has no solid figures to support either side.
And even among school districts that are working to comply with the law, there is controversy over how to do it. As Wendy Kaufman reports in Part Two, bitter debate is raging among people that might be expected to work together. The disagreement is over whether children are better off in neighborhood schools or in separate schools where they can receive special attention.
At the Thomas J. Pappas School for Children of Homeless Families in Phoenix, students get all kinds of services they might not get in a traditional public school: free breakfast and lunch, a health clinic, donated clothing, social services of all kinds. The educational aim is to keep children in one place for long enough to achieve stability.
Schools like Pappas say it is a temporary solution, but opponents say it's the wrong approach. "We should not segregate these kids just because they are homeless," says Ellen Bassick, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness. "The education system must care for these kids just like any other kind."
That's what's happening in Spokane, Wash., where 20 of the city's 23 elementary schools include homeless students. Separating homeless kids causes educators to "go from caring to pity," says Edie Sims, Spokane's director for homeless education. "You lower your expectations and place yourself above them."
But Spokane is not the norm, says Sandra Darling, founder of the Pappas School. Serving homeless kids is expensive -- often more expensive than school districts can afford, she says. "You always have to balance reality with idealism."
Other Resources
• The National Center on Family Homelessness.
• The The Thomas J. Pappas School for Children of Homeless Families.
• The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth offers an online library dealing with issues of homeless families and youth. Links to grant funding sources for the homeless.
• The University of Colorado provides links to more than 500 resources for the homeless.
• The The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development includes information on housing and funding for the homeless and provides links to sites that deal with homeless families.
• The National Coalition of Homeless provides advocacy, education, and help with grassroots organizing.
• The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness provides schools with planned activities to educate, serve and provide action to end homelessness and hunger.
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