Keeping homeless in school still a test

Marisa O’Neil

Despite new laws meant to give homeless children better access to

public education, student retention remains a problem for local

schools.

At the end of last year, 276 students identified by the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District as homeless were enrolled,

district spokeswoman Jane Garland said. As of Nov. 1, 93 didn’t

return and 31 new homeless students had enrolled.

“It’s so difficult to educate these children because they’re

constantly on the move,” said Garland, who also serves as the

district’s homeless liaison. November is Homeless Awareness Month.

Reaching transient students is easier now than it was in years

past, largely because of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education

Assistance Act, a part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The

new legislation made public education more accessible to homeless

students.

In the past, students from homeless families often had difficulty

enrolling in school because they could not provide a permanent

address or proper documentation, which was required by law.

“We, like so many districts, were going by the letter of the law,

saying everybody must have residence,” said Michael Murphy, the

district’s director of student services and former homeless liaison.

“But that’s a problem if they can’t give it to us. Maybe they were

living in a motel 29 days, then shifting to another motel, then

another motel.”

Murphy helped set up a one-room schoolhouse at the Orange County

Interfaith Shelter in Costa Mesa a few years ago to get around the

problem and educate the children there. The school shut down after

they found out they could not legally run a school like that.

Since the McKinney-Vento Act and a $100,000 grant associated with

it came to the district, things have significantly improved, said

Murphy, now the president of the shelter’s board of trustees.

Students may enroll and start class without a permanent address

and before they have all the documents.

“We can take a more humane approach and try to put children in the

closest school to make a connection with their teacher, with the

students, with the principal,” he said. “Those are major stabilizing

influences in their lives.”

The district’s Nurturing Enriching Teachers program, which started

last year, helps educate teachers and school staff about the special

needs of homeless students, coordinator Diana Hensley said. They also

work on one-on-one with the children.

“Statistically, [these students] might have more trouble reading,”

Hensley said. “There’s a very high probability they’re at least a

grade behind in reading, and maybe math. They get discouraged easily

and often don’t have a place to do homework. You might get kids who

won’t come to school because they don’t have socks.”

According to the district’s new policy, a student is classified as

homeless if he or she is sharing a residence, living in a motel or

trailer, staying in a shelter or living on the street or in a car. By

law, they cannot discriminate against homeless students, and if a

homeless student moves, even out of the district, they must provide

transportation if the student wants to stay at the same school.

Right now, former Costa Mesa residents who moved to more

affordable housing in Stanton and Huntington Beach still attend their

old schools, Garland said.

Though most homeless students attend schools on the Westside of

Costa Mesa, they are not confined to that area, she added.

Many transient families do not necessarily fit most people’s

perception of the homeless, Hensley said.

“A lot of homeless parents work, they just don’t make much money

and can’t afford housing,” she said. “The average person is Caucasian

and has lived in the area for 10 years or more. Some are from here.”

Because the holiday season can be especially challenging for the

homeless, organizations are doing what they can to help out. St.

Joachim Catholic Church and School is having a Thanksgiving dinner

for the third year in a row.

The dinner has grown from about 160 in the first year to 427 last

year, organizer Regina Consoli said. Most of those people, she said,

are families who are just having a tough time making ends meet.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].