By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY / MINNEAPOLIS
Right now, nearly 1 in 10 children attending public school in Minneapolis is homeless. Read that sentence again.
As Wall Street tries to right itself, the global economic crisis is punishing many of the youngest Americans. Preliminary nationwide figures indicate that there were nearly 16% more homeless students in the 2007-08 academic year than in the previous year. And the number of homeless students continues to climb as more parents face foreclosure or the unemployment line. Of some 1,700 school districts surveyed this fall in a separate study, 69% said they had already counted at least half as many homeless students during the first few months of this academic year as they did in all of the last one. By Thanksgiving, 330 districts — including Las Vegas; Albuquerque, N.M.; and San Bernardino, Calif. — had equaled or surpassed the previous year's total. At these rates, 2008-09 could top the 2005-06 academic year, when Hurricane Katrina wrecked the Gulf Coast and 1 in 50 American children experienced homelessness, according to another report released this month. (See pictures of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.)
Over the past two decades, Minneapolis' 33,000-student district has seen a steady increase in the number of homeless kids, as the Twin Cities area has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs and the supply of affordable housing has dwindled. The recession has worsened the problem: between July and December, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) tallied nearly 20% more homeless students than during the same period the year before. Perhaps out of necessity, the district has become a national model for how to identify what it refers to as "highly mobile students" and ensure that their education is not interrupted. Case in point: Since September, when second-grader Ty'jhanae Walker moved with her family to a shelter across town from her school, the 7-year-old has ridden a bus an hour each way so she can keep going to Ramsey International Fine Arts Center. Her mother Denise Powe wants her to stick with the K-8 school — which currently has at least 24 other students classified as highly mobile — because she doesn't want Ty'jhanae to fall behind. "Different schools learn at different paces, so I'm really pushing for her to stay in Ramsey," Powe says. "Moving Ty'jhanae is going to be my very last resort. Her education is my life."
Since 1987, federal law has required districts to help homeless children stay enrolled at one school continuously, as any move could set these kids back several months academically. Under the law, a district must provide free transportation — whether by taxi, city bus or school bus — even if the child is staying in a shelter outside its boundaries. Every year, MPS spends more than $1.5 million transporting homeless students. On a recent morning, seven buses arrived at Ty'jhanae's shelter to deliver 21 kids to eight different schools.
Teachers and school social workers at MPS are trained to recognize signs that a child may be between homes: hoarding food, wearing the same clothes every day, regularly falling asleep in class. Sometimes it's just a matter of asking the right questions. When a second-grader at Longfellow Elementary School couldn't stay awake during reading time, his teacher gently asked him why. "He told her that the rats and roaches were keeping him up," says one of the school's social workers, Cheryl Flugaur-Levitt. "We discovered he'd been sleeping on a relative's floor, and he was scared to death about things crawling on him at night." So she went to work on getting him at least a mattress to sleep on until his family could find a more permanent home.
MPS gives each homeless child a new backpack full of school supplies paid for by private donations and federal dollars. And these aren't cheapo knapsacks. "We don't want backpacks that look like they came from a shelter," says Elizabeth Hinz, district liaison for homeless and highly mobile students. In the winter, her staff members hand out coats, mittens and hats. Year-round, they find free medical clinics to treat earaches and provide dental services. School social workers take kids to get glasses and vaccinations. Many high schools offer laundry or shower facilities for teenagers — who are often left to fend for themselves when a family becomes homeless — as well as a secure locker for their belongings. "We've seen students put their whole lives in those lockers," says Elena Shaw, MPS's high school support liaison. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)
The district provides funding to make sure kids don't get left out of sports, field trips, school dances or special projects like the science fair. And when two homeless students at Cityview Performing Arts Magnet won a regional science fair, teacher Pamela Holland-Mills did their laundry so they would have clean clothes for the celebratory dinner.
Nationwide, the federal stimulus package allocated $70 million to help homeless students, more than doubling the $65 million slated for this year. But those dollars will be meted out across the country's 15,000 school districts. And as the recession wears on, shelters are getting maxed out: the one where Powe and her two kids are staying has room for 32 people but received 50 calls from people seeking shelter in October 2006, 100 in October 2007 and about 300 last October. School districts know they'll have to fight one another to get enough resources for their homeless students. "It's our gravest concern that we'll lose more federal dollars," says MPS superintendent Bill Green. "Because staying in school is these kids' only shot at a better life."
Powe has been looking for a job for more than a year since the beauty shop at which she worked cut all full-time positions. She appreciates the stability her daughter's school provides as well as the instrument the school is lending Ty'jhanae for the year. "She just loves playing her violin," Powe says. "Every time we go to a different church, she plays it for the volunteers."
Marie Bell, one of two social workers at Ty'jhanae's school, says music serves as a balance for homeless kids. "Students are more resilient if they are able to develop musical skills," she says. The school encourages students to write daily journal entries that can help officials identify children who are between homes. "There may be some homeless kids here we don't know about," Bell admits. "Just letting them unscrew their valve and let some steam out helps."
