The New Social Worker Vol. 19, No. 4, Fall 2012 | Page 12

Homeless Education: Providing Stable Education
for Children and Youth in Transition
By Sonya O. Hunte, MSW

mericans were astonished as they
viewed the 60 Minutes special,
Hard Times Generation: Families
Living in Cars. The special focused on the
issue of family homelessness in central
Florida. Particularly highlighted were
children and youth facing homelessness
in the Seminole County school district.
There was hope in the story—the resilience of families and the efforts of Homeless Education Liaison, Beth Davalos.

Meet homeless child, John Scofield, Jr.,
who is six years of age. John and Yvette
Scofield had been having marital discord for
some time. One Friday evening, the argument
escalated, and John hit Yvette—a bruised eye,
cheek, and lip resulted. Scared for her life and
that of John Jr., Yvette fled the home. Mrs.
Scofield left her home scared and without
any income or access to monetary resources.
Yvette’s friend volunteered at a domestic
violence shelter, Renewed Hope, about two
years earlier in a neighboring county. After
living in her car for two nights, Yvette checked
into that very shelter on Sunday morning.
Fearing returning to her old neighborhood

and John Jr.’s school, Yvette
asked her case manager about
other school options for John
Jr. After all, Yvette wanted
John Jr. to have a consistent
education, despite their
now transitional state. The
shelter case manager recalled
information from a McKinney-Vento training given
by the local school district’s
Homeless Education Liaison
at the shelter site. The case
manager shared with Yvette
that John Jr. could attend the
school zoned for the shelter.
John Jr. was registered and
attended classes at his new
school that Monday morning
with guidance from the school
social worker and registrar.
Homeless education
is a movement mostly
known to school-based
and child welfare social
workers. Guided by the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, this
form of education seeks
to provide parameters for
eliminating barriers to school enrollment,
attendance, and academic success for
children and youth facing homelessness.
Named after Representatives Stewart B.
McKinney of Connecticut and Bruce F.
Vento of Minnesota, the McKinney-Vento Act’s purpose is to close the achievement gap of students in transition with
accountability, flexibility, and choice, so
no child is left behind. This law, reauthorized as Title X, Part C, of the No Child
Left Behind Act in January 2002, defines
homelessness and provides school-based
services targeting the needs of those who
are in transition.

Since 2007, Americans have been
feeling the effects of the housing crisis.
Daily media messages on the debt ceiling, increasing unemployment rates, job
availability, and the housing market’s
implications confirm what we already
know—there is an economic downturn. These factors matter and greatly
influence the issue of homelessness in
America. In particular, family homeless-

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ness brings additional factors like educating children into play.

According to the National Center
on Family Homelessness, America’s
Youngest Outcasts 2010, there are 1.6
million children facing homelessness
each year. The U.S. Department of
Education reports that in the school year
2009, 954,914 children and youth were
considered homeless. The McKinneyVento Act is an intersection of the child
welfare, education, housing, health care,
and other social welfare systems.

The Act explicitly defines those
who lack fixed, regular, and adequate
nighttime shelter as homeless. The Act
further discusses the types of nighttime
residences that would qualify a student as
being homeless. Those residences are hotels and motels, shelters and transitional
facilities, unsheltered and living spaces
not fit for human habitation, families
who are doubled up with another family because of economic hardship, and
children awaiting foster care. Each state
has the ability to create statewide policy
and legislation in an effort to provide
an explicit definition on awaiting foster
care. Children who are in foster care
cannot be considered McKinney-Vento
eligible; however, there are supports for
this population directed by the Fostering
Connections Act. Also covered under