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Show ber of homeless students about 9,000 - are in Maricopa like County, which includes Phoenix. Flagstaff identified 530 emphasizes the importance of homeless students last year, letting students stay in the about 5 percent of its 11,000 same school, even if their lat- students. None of these numest living situation is beyond bers includes families or teens district borders. Thats be- who succeed in hiding their cause with each school move, situation from school leaders. A lot of people in need children are set back academically by an average of four to dont come forward, says Joe six months, according to the Gutierrez, principal of Killip National Association for the Elementary, where Nicole is enrolled. Sometimes we need Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) in to pry into information that people are reluctant to give, Minneapolis. There wasnt widespread but its only because we try to of family determine what is best. recognition Ms. Anderson enrolled homelessness until the 1980s in an Nicole pro... and as many as half of for HomeStart free to thats homeless kids couldnt get gram school regularly because of kids, made sure she had a residency requirements, or backpack full of supplies, and because they didnt have arranged for her to discreetly take a shower at school in the transportation or school supplies, says Barbara Duffield, mornings when needed. Darlene was pleasantly surpolicy director for NAEHCY. The original McKinney law prised when Anderson helped license dates back to 1987. By 2000, her get a chila and shoes for of homeless 87 percent special job in dren were enrolled in school, local school cafeterias. THE SAN JUAN RECORD Wednesday, March 9, 2005 For homeless, no place (Editors note: A recent study shows that nearly 25 percent of the students at Albert R. Lyman Middle School meet the legal definition of homeless. As a result, it is fair to assume that a similar percentage of students throughout the sprawling San Juan School District have a similar status. This article recently ran in the Christian Science Monitor and addresses the issue m other locations.) Staff by Stacy A. Teicher writer of The Christian Science Monitor FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ. - Last October, Nicoles grades hit a low point. Its hard for a fifth-gradto master math when the only place to sleep at night is the family station wagon. er For a month, her family d would drive up into the hills of Flagstaff, Ariz., stack up their belongings under a tarp, and huddle in sleeping bags for another night of camping. In the morning, her mom, Darlene, and Darlenes partner, Steve, would sometimes have to kick open the pine-covere- frozen car doors. Still, they managed to drive Nicole to school on time every day. They came here in August from Alabama, partly in search of better schools. They stayed in motels at first, and immediately enrolled Nicole in a school that year-roun- d pro- vides her with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But in this mountain resort town, it hasnt been easy to find enough work to put a roof over their heads. It was the school, of all places, that finally helped - Page 4 -- school after-scho- food-handle- with 77 percent attending regularly, according to the latest data from the US Department of Education. Only 15 percent of preschool-agdren were enrolled. There have been some really significant accomplishments - many more kids are getting into school, Ms. Duffield says. Although shes encouraged, she says theres still denial in some communities. And even when theres not, its hard for districts to keep up with the growing gap e between jobs and the cost of living. high Homelessness is a moving target - its getting worse, she e low-wag- says. chil- ol rs Anderson also advocated for them with a social-service- s agency, which agreed to pay first months rent when Darlene found a trailer home in November. one-bedroo- m Nicoles transformation The paint on the trailer is peeling, but inside, furnishings from the Salvation Army make it a cozy place that allowed Nicole to be her bubbly self again. Wearing a hot pink and jeans with butterT-shi-rt flies sewn on the legs, she shows off her pets - some fish that cost just $3, living in a tank they rescued from the garbage. Someday, Nicole says, she hopes to be a vet. There has been a big change in her attitude since weve had a roof over our head, and her grades have come up, Darlene says. Now Nicole is making a B in math, her toughest subject. Ever since she started Awareness of the law has been filtering down, but full implementation is slow in coming. Some schools have to keep retraining staff because of high turnover, while others just dont want these kids, preschool, shes loved school, Darlene continues. And its so and will try to avoid implementing the law, says Joy important to have an educaMoses, a staff attorney at the tion and learn computers and National Law Center on stuff nowadays, so you can get Homelessness & Poverty. The a good job and not have to go AsVento Homeless Center sued last year in New through what Im going McKinney sistance Act, were all school Yorks Suffolk County to get through, and what Im putting districts required to have a lischools there to stop burdenher through as a child. aison for homeless students some screening processes that Nicole had her birthday in a and to remove barriers to their delayed the enrollment of motel, she adds ruefully. That full participation in school. homeless children. It also sued wasnt so bad! her daughter The law isnt just about kids New York State, which agreed chimes in. As for camping in who sleep in cars or on the to do more to enforce complithe car for a month? (Her mom . streets. Estimates of the num- ance with McKinney-Ventoand Anderson both referred to ber of children in the United The parties reached a tentait that way, and school officials State who experience tive settlement in October. generally dont use the word homelessness at some point in homeless in front of the chilFirst step - recognizing a given year range from whos affected dren.) It was OK, Nicole 900,000 to 2.8 million. Theyre Many schools are getting says, but it was freezing, so it in shelters, or doubled up with better at spotting children who was hard to get up and get acrelatives or friends in over- dont have an adequate home tive. crowded houses. Theyre in in which to do homework. One Killip hosts 40 to 50 homemotels or substandard apartdramatic example was cited in less children a year, and they ments. Theyre teens on the a newsletter from the Texas often arrive in the middle of a run from abuse or kicked out Homeless Education Office: A semester. Nicole is one of the after the latest argument with district where officials believed resilient ones, says her homefamily. They dont have a they had no homeless children room teacher, Barb Stuckey, stable place to call home - but started training educators to versus the kind of child who wherever they are, they have identify them, in response to is affected in different ways, the 2002 law. By the end of the such as not being able to eat. the right to an education. school year, they had Its a major improvement for 2003-0Ms. Stuckey is relieved to a part of the discovered 2,920 students know that children are getting student population, say advo(nearly 10 percent of the dishelp through HomeStart, becates for homeless children. trict) who fit the McKinney-Vent- o cause she can better maintain definition. her role as teacher. Your iniReauthorized as part of No In law the tial feeling, your gut feeling, is Arizona, highest num Child Left Behind, the them find a home. Realizing that children dont have a good foundation for academic success if they are worried about where theyll sleep, the Flagstaff school district set up an outreach program in 1993 called HomeStart. The district was somewhat ahead of its time. Not until 2002, with the strengthening of a federal law known as the -- -- 4 long-neglect- to not require the same amount from them because you know what theyre going through, she says. I have to really talk to myself to resist that urge, because to me its really important ... to empower them so that they have what they need to sort of break out ' of the cycle.... Killips outreach extends to adults, too - with groups hosting educational programs on evenings and weekends. I have not worked in a district before where working with our families in need was as high a priority, says Principal Gutierrez. When he first came to the school 10 years ago, he says, he was skeptical about having a shower and laundry facilities. I thought, What are we doing? Were here to educate kids.... Then the light went on and I got it. Under No Child Left Behind, schools must look more closely at the academic progress of e students. And homeless kids are generally extreme examples: The average income in their families is just 46 percent of the poverty level, according to NAEHCY. For fiscal year 2005, $62.5 low-incom- million from McKinney-Vent- o will be divvied up among the states to provide training for school staff and services for homeless students. Districts that dont win McKinney-Vent- o grants from their states can tap into Title funds for students. Through state liaisons, the US Department of Education low-incom- I e is starting to track whether homeless students are meeting state standards. In Arizona, for example, the districts that receive grants McKinney-Vent- o re- port that 39 percent of homeless students meet or exceed state standards for third-gradreading. That compares with 71 percent of all students statewide, says Mattie McVey, coordthe homeless-educatioe n inator for Arizona. But homeless childrens skills run the gamut, so schools need to break down barriers to everything from gifted-educatio- programs to n athletics or other extra-curricular- Frustrating cycles Anderson and her fellow liaison, Stephanie Sivak, say its sometimes hard to keep their spirits up when they see children caught in cycles of homelessness. Families often come to Flagstaff looking for work, but motels along Route 66 charge $200 a week - so theres little money left over to get into a better situation. And the conditions in some of them are atrocious, Sivak says. Theyve also seen women and children go back to abusers because the shelters have a time limit, and longer-term living options have waiting lists. Some families simply dont take advantage of the opportunity to keep their children in one school as they move around. Its frustrating for a teacher if a child is doing well and making friends and the parent decides to move them to another school, Sivak says. One boy is at his Fifth school in Flagstaff, and hes only in third grade. But there are modest successes: Thank you notes from kids who have graduated from high school. Parents who have gained stability, or at least the skills so they can be stable for longer stretches between stints of homelessness. Those kids are strong - a child who can do their homework in the car, and come to school on time, and want to be here theyre amazing, Anderson says. In the broader community, there are still people who hear the word homeless and envision a scruffy man on the street. But city officials know that families are affected, the liaisons say, and theyre working to change the fact that affordable housing is an oxymoron. Darlene, Steve, and Nicole are squeaking by after they pay $490 a month for the trailer home. Who knows how long that arrangement will last, but one thing, at least, is stable - Nicoles school. One tiny hint of how important thats been to the creative -- her homeroom s. The priority given to these issues varies considerably. Many of the local liaisons have other jobs, too, such as counseling. Anderson says Flagstaff is fortunate to be able to hire her full time, and another liaison half time, because the district won one of the 21 McKinney-Ventgrants o given out last year in Arizona. cubby. The children have hooks for their coats, and cubes just above, for small items. For Nicole, its her place - its almost like a locker, Stuckey says. She has beads, little stuffed animals - its like a kingdom. And theres not one other kid who has that need to make their cubby that way. VVI r 527 NORTH MAIN MONTICELLO 435-459-4- 930 Need Your Car Washed? unt Call David. io or se"l0rs Car Washing Service By appointment or pick up ed HOT WATER Wash: Rinse |