pre-conference session: hearth implications for youth (moody)
DESCRIPTION
The reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program offers homeless youth providers a greater opportunity to access housing support. Changes in statutory language also allow greater flexibility to design housing programs that meet the needs of homeless youth. This session will focus on how the HEARTH Act benefits homeless youth.TRANSCRIPT
McKinney-Vento 101:The Education of Homeless
Children and Youth Program
Patricia A. Popp, Ph.D.
State Coordinator
Project HOPE – Virginia
The College of William & Mary
Presented by Arnecia Moody
Goals• Highlight key McKinney-Vento Homeless
Education Act requirements
• Virginia’s M-V implementation
•
• Your questions
McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act
Title X, Part C2001 Reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act
The child’s classroom may be the only place where the child can experience
quiet, interact with children his/her age, and experience success…
School is the most normal activity that most children experience collectively…For homeless children it is much more
than a learning environment. It is a place of safety, personal space, friendships, and
support.Oakley & King, 2000
Who is homeless?• An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate
nighttime residence, including children and youth :
– sharing housing due to loss of housing or economic hardship
– living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate housing
– living in emergency or
transitional housing
Who is homeless? (cont’d)Including children and youth : abandoned in hospitals awaiting foster care having a primary nighttime residence that is a public
or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, regular sleeping accommodations
living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations
migratory students meeting the description unaccompanied youth meeting the
description
McKinney-Vento Act
• Reauthorizes the Stewart B. McKinney Act, originally enacted in 1987
• Provides states with funding to support local grants and statewide initiatives
• Requires educational access, attendance, and success for homeless children and youth
• Outlines responsibilities for local liaisons
McKinney-Vento EHCY Requirements
• Appoint a local homeless education liaison in every LEA• Provide outreach and coordination to identify students• Enroll students immediately in local school OR• Maintain student enrollment in the school of origin when
feasible and in the student’s best interest– Includes transportation
– Even across school division lines
Get the student enrolled and
keep the student enrolled!
Ensuring Access to Educational Services
• Free and reduced price breakfast and lunch programs
• Title I
• Special education• Gifted programs
• Transportation
• After school and summer programs
• Head Start and (Even Start), VPI
McKinney-Vento EHCY
• National 2008 & 09 Allocation: $64 million– Virginia: $1,059,872 (2009: $1,015,099)
• National ARRA Allocation: $70 million– Virginia: $1,100,421
• 32 LEAs received funding– 15/38 eligible nonsubgrants
– 17/30 current subgrants
Numbers• 2 million people experience homelessness annually• Approximately half are children• USED 2008-09 data (NCHE) : 956,914 students
experiencing homelessness enrolled (41% increase over 2 years)
• Virginia 2008-09• PreK-12 – 12,768 (29% increase since 2006-07)• PreK – 408• Elementary – 6,998• Middle – 2,646• High –2,716
Young Children Experiencing Homelessness
• 45% of children living in homeless shelters in Virginia are under the age of five.
• 2500 children under five were reported by VDHCD in emergency, domestic violence and transitional programs for FY 2008
Initial Primary Nighttime Residence Category
Children and youth living in abandoned buildings, campgrounds and vehicles, space not meant for habitation, trailers or FEMA trailers, cars, bus and train stations, and abandoned in the hospital. Substandard or inadequate housing does not easily fit into any category as it is not governed by a specific definition and is judged on a case-by-case basis. An inadequate dwelling may shelter but it is not adequate housing.
Unsheltered
Children and youth living in shelters and transitional housing programs (homeless and domestic violence programs). Children and youth awaiting foster care placement.
Shelter
Children and youth (including runaway youth or unaccompanied youth) who live with relatives or friends due to being homeless.
Doubled-Up
Children and youth living in hotels/motels due to a lack of alternative adequate accommodations.
Hotel/Motel
New for 2009-10 in VA: Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Flag
Primary Nighttime Residence Virginia 2008-09
Thanks for all you do!
• HMSE_PICS.mpg
Resources• NAEHCY – www.naehcy.org
• NCHE - www.serve.org/nche
• NLCHP - www.nlchp.org
• NLIHC – www.nlihc.org
• Project HOPE-VA: www.wm.edu/hope
• USDE - www.ed.gov/programs/homeless/index.html
Contact Information
Project HOPE-VirginiaThe College of William & Mary
P. O. Box 8795Williamsburg, VA 23187
757-221-7776 877-455-3412 (toll free)757-221-5300 (fax)[email protected]
www.wm.edu/hope
Context
• Poverty Tour VIDEO_TS.IFO– http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour.htm
• National Low Income Housing Coalition– http://www.nlihc.org
• VDSS Self Sufficiency Standards– http://www.dss.state.va.us/geninfo/reports/
agency_wide/self_sufficiency.cgi
Causes and Impact of Homelessness• Causes
– Poverty– Substance Abuse– Domestic Violence– Mental Illness– Affordable Housing– Physical Illness– Economic crises
• Impact Absenteeism is greater Developmental delays occur
at 4 times the rate reported for other children
Learning disabilities identified at double the rate
Twice as likely to repeat a grade