Homeless Student Population Growing in Shoreline-LFP

Editor’s Note: This is part of a special report about homeless students in the Shoreline School District. Patch partnered with Investigate West for this report.

School districts across the state of Washington, including Shoreline, continue to grapple with growing homeless student populations.

At the same time budget cuts are curtailing their ability to help, as required by federal law.

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts are required to identify and report homeless students and to guarantee those students transportation so they can stay at their original schools even if they have been forced to find emergency shelter outside the district. The districts are required to track how many students are living in motels, doubled up with relatives, in cars or in shelters. (Click here for a look at where homeless Shoreline students lived in 2009-10.)

Being homeless can affect how children learn, can lead to depression, and can be misdiagnosed as learning disabilities, labels that stick with a child for years. (See related story).

In the 2009-10 school year, the Shoreline School District had 90 homeless students. As of April 25, the district had 105 homeless students, a 17 percent increase. And that’s up from 82 in 2006-07, according to figures from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction compiled by Investigate West.

"While this is sad news, it's not unexpected given the current economic climate," said Craig Degginger, public information officer for the district. "We have homeless students across all grade levels."

The district also has seen an increase in its percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Providing stability

“The main goal of identifying kids is so they can stay in their school of origin, so they have consistency with their peers, teachers and educational progress,” said Melinda Dyer, program supervisor for Education of Homeless Children and Youth for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

A small 2006 pilot study by the Washington State Department of Transportation found that while homeless kids typically had lower grades and Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores than non-homeless students, the grades and scores were better among those homeless students who got to stay in their original schools.

But staying in those schools means providing cabs, bus passes or other means of transportation for kids, even if it means they are commuting up to an hour and a half a day to school.

It’s up to individual school districts to squeeze that transportation money from their own budgets. “There is no pot of money for homeless students,” said Dyer. “It’s a big burden for districts.”

A report released in December shows 21,826 homeless students statewide in the 2009-2010 school year, a 30 percent increase in three years. That reporting period compares the numbers of homeless students reported in the 2006-2007 school year, before the recession began in December of 2007, to the most current full year, 2009-2010.

School districts can apply for federal money to help defray their homeless student costs. Shoreline schools received $6,499 in McKinney-Vento stimulus this year, the majority of which goes to pay for transportation to and from home.

In addition to the McKinney Vento funding, the district is also required each year to set aside some of its Title I dollars to support homeless students as well. That funding is used to support students with tutoring and school-related fees and materials. The district pays for tutoring, resource referrals and other items the homeless students need for school.  The district has also paid for choir robes, books, summer school fees and class fees.  
Identifying homeless students can be tough.
"The biggest challenge we have is the stigma that parents perceive in self-identifying themselves as 'homeless,'" Degginger said.  "Some won't come forward to ask for help so unless we know, we can't help them."

District resources
The Shoreline School District participates in the CRT, Community Resource Team, run by the city of Shoreline. The CRT meets monthly to discuss resources and work in the community. 
In addition, there are various resources that support families in the community: The Works (free clothing supplied by the Shoreline PTA Council) and the Back to School Consortium Event (partnership including CHS, city, district, and many others) that provides backpacks (more than 1,000 last year), hair cuts and other essentials for students starting school each August.