Homeless Students? How best to help them
This fall we see the opening of First Place School as a charter school serving mobile, high-risk students (mostly homeless). The Times had a story about how homeless students are served in schools in Washington state with an interesting question to it.
The Times reports that there are about 30,000 homeless kids in our state today (and that number has steadily risen over the last decade). School can be the one constant in their lives (for as long as they may be in any given school).
There's a federal law protecting these students - the McKinney-Vento Act - and it allows students to stay enrolled in a school even if they move. Districts have to pay to transport them to that school, no matter the distance.
The feds give money for these transportation costs but naturally, it doesn't cover them all. Seattle SD spends over $1M a year in costs (out of a state budget for transportation of all homeless WA state students of less than $1M a year).
One thought is that maybe Seattle SD might be better off putting those transportation dollars towards a housing subsidy that would keep kids nearer their schools.
I could see how this might provide better outcomes but I also think it could be a headache for districts to try to figure out how to do this (a bill is likely to come up in the next legislative session).
Transportation costs are fairly high in our own district. But maybe this is an idea worth looking into to bring those down.
The Times reports that there are about 30,000 homeless kids in our state today (and that number has steadily risen over the last decade). School can be the one constant in their lives (for as long as they may be in any given school).
There's a federal law protecting these students - the McKinney-Vento Act - and it allows students to stay enrolled in a school even if they move. Districts have to pay to transport them to that school, no matter the distance.
The feds give money for these transportation costs but naturally, it doesn't cover them all. Seattle SD spends over $1M a year in costs (out of a state budget for transportation of all homeless WA state students of less than $1M a year).
One thought is that maybe Seattle SD might be better off putting those transportation dollars towards a housing subsidy that would keep kids nearer their schools.
I could see how this might provide better outcomes but I also think it could be a headache for districts to try to figure out how to do this (a bill is likely to come up in the next legislative session).
Transportation costs are fairly high in our own district. But maybe this is an idea worth looking into to bring those down.
Comments
If universal preschool already strains the system far too much and enlarges the SPS mission do we also now want to take on housing?
No. Absolutely not. In theory or in some other school district with its act together maybe. But SPS cannot and will not be able to handle it. Period. Nor do I want the city to take it on in the name of the district. The dysfunction between the Office of Ed and the School Board makes my case.
DistrictWatcher
CT
CT, I can feature the case of a child in Auburn being transported to Edmonds. When my family was forced into temp housing, we moved to Renton before the end of the school year, but our children attended school and aftercare in Seattle. It happens.
Westside
From my understanding, they did/do a very good job serving homeless students.
a) I wonder why they wanted to go charter;
b) Is SPS still on the hook for transportation costs? Or does FP have to go directly to the state?
The baloney solutions are a merry go round of programs, many or all of which spend way too much money on buck passing paper pushing highly credentialed nitwits making idiotic processes to justify their paychecks.
These kids, just like any kids from any kind of messy adult life, need stability. They need to know where their school is, who their teachers are, who their counselors are, who helps 'em with food and shelter and health issues and math homework and the history project and the reading - AND THIS CAN'T BE MULTIPLE PROGRAMS WITH MULTIPLE FORMS AND EVER CHANGING ADULTS.
Why was I so dismissive, contemptuous and sarcastic about the nitwits? Well, cuz the stuff in BOLD isn't rocket science.
Bill Moyers had a segment about a working poor family who've been homeless and cast adrift and cut off at the knees too often as they were trying to get a itsy bitsy ahead. The program recommendations from the mom were things I could have said 4 decades ago when I was a teen on welfare.
In 2012 there were appx. 28,000,000 Americans over 15 with money income over 75,000 a year. There were appx. 221,000,000 of us under that 75k. There were about 193,000,000 of us under the 50k mark.
All you over 75K gurus - Make stuff work, or, do us all a favor
AndQuit
CT