by David Snow
The Paducah Sun
March 24, 2022
Used with permission.
The Paducah school board accepted a $70,120 grant on Monday that will be used to identify and enroll the district’s homeless students and track their success in schools.
The American Rescue Plan Homeless Children and Youth Grant will also provide for a part-time position to help the district reach its goals.
Local school districts’ homeless student liaisons operate through the guidance of the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 provides money for homeless shelter programs. It was later amended to include assistance in education. The revised act:
• Ensures homeless children transportation to and from school free of charge.
• Requires schools to register homeless children even if they lack normally required documents, such as immunization records or proof of residence.
• States must designate a statewide homeless coordinator to review policies and create procedures, including dispute resolution procedures, to ensure that homeless children are able to attend school.
• Local school districts must appoint local education liaisons to ensure that school staff are aware of these rights, to provide public notice to homeless families at shelters and at school and to facilitate access to school and transportation services.
Heather Anderson is the McKinney-Vento liaison for the Paducah school district, and she was excited to receive the grant.
“Every school district in America was given the opportunity to apply for the grant,” she said. “Every district in Kentucky was offered a certain amount of money to try to get.”
About $44,000 is allotted for a part-time position to help identify the homeless students in the district. That position would start in August.
“What I would like for that person to do is lots and lots of home visits, lots of conferencing with the students and families and increase family engagement and student engagement in a really, really positive way,” Anderson said.
“Because (homeless families) are working toward survival, school sometimes falls off as a priority, and we want to make sure that we have a team of people supporting these families and students.”
Anderson said she hoped the position would last for at least a couple of years to further help homeless students.
Anderson said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, several homeless students fell off of the office’s radar, which is a problem nationwide.
“That’s been a national problem with McKinney-Vento programs, is that we’re having a hard time finding our families,” she said. “Now, as we’re starting to lighten up, more families are returning, but we want to be sure that we start identifying them because that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to remove barriers to getting a free, appropriate education.”
Homelessness is not just people living in their car or out in the open, as defined by the McKinney-Vento Act.
“Homeless students may live in hotels or motels, living in shared housing — maybe with friends or family or even someone you don’t know — or transitional housing, places like Fresh Start, the River City Mission, Merriman House — those types of places,” she said. “Students who are runaways typically qualify for my program.”
The McKinney-Vento program also helps homeless students with extracurricular needs, like getting a student to a team bus.
Anderson said some of the grant funding would go toward hotel vouchers for emergency housing.
“I think it’s going to be really powerful,” she said. “It will help with our attendance. Mondays are days where, if a family goes homeless over the weekend, then school attendance on Monday may not happen.”
The grant will also provide fuel for the School and Transition Assistance for Youth (STAY) program van.
“Another thing that I’m super-excited about is we would like to start a crock pot project,” Anderson said. “There is another district that has done this. What we plan to do is purchase crock pots and have the ingredients that go into the crock pot weekly. So, either a family or unaccompanied youth will come to us or we will go to them.
“We’ll conference about grades, attendance or behavior and see what our needs are. I think that’s another way to increase family engagement and for we as school personnel to go to them.”
Anderson said the $70,120 grant will help her serve the needs of the district’s homeless students and help them become good students.
“I’m all about forging positive relationships,” she said. “School is so important; you have to have it. And that is a way out of poverty, is through education.”
Photo credit: David Snow