Transcript Identification of children in homeless situations

identification of
children in
homeless situations
San Antonio, Texas
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County with 17 different school districts
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San Antonio ISD
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Inner city school district
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third largest in the county: 54,000
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93% economically disavantaged
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Home to 20 different sites that house children temporarily
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Rank among the largest in the county to enroll children in foster care
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Tourist Mecca
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Home to the famous River Walk
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Home of The Alamo and several Historical Missions
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Home to the REAL Mexican Food Restaurants
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Home of the San Antonio Spurs; 5 time winner of the NBA Championship (Woohoo!)
San Antonio ISD Stats
Nighttime
Residency
2014-2015
(10-22-14)
2013-2014
2012-2013
2011-2012
Shelter
241
610
628
683
Doubled Up
1,255
2,368
2,314
1,721
Unsheltered
356
181
60
58
Motel
43
77
64
38
Total
1,954
3,236
3,066
2,500
Session Agenda
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McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act of 2011. A Definition
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A simple Definition for people
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Determining Homelessness – examples
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Methodology of identification
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Student Residency Questionnaires (SRQ)
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Research & Evaluation
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Shelter engagement
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Neighboring School Districts
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Students not enrolled
Session Goals
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Understand the definition of homelessness based on law
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Acquire practice in determining homelessness
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Have more of an understanding of how to create partnerships in
support of identification
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Learning none traditional ways of identification using your own data
Understanding the law
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Sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic
hardship, or similar reason
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Doubled-up or couch-surfing
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75.5% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds due to lack of
adequate alternative accommodations
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Motels: 2.4% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
Understanding the law
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Living in emergency or transitional shelters
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18.2% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
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Living in a public or private place not designed for humans to live
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Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus
or train stations, or similar settings
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3.8% SAISD students during 2013-2014
Awaiting foster care placement
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What is your state’s interpretation related to foster and homelessness
Simple Definition
If children live in:
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Shelter (emergency or transitional)
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Emergency (more than 27 shelters housing children in SAISD)
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Transitional (shelter programs that house families up to 2 years)
Car, park, campground, trailer parks
Motel / Hotel
Awaiting foster care
Abandoned in hospitals
Multi-families living in one house due to loss of housing.
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If doubled-up in following location – family is homeless
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Section 8 housing
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Courts / Projects
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Any public housing opportunity (HUD supportive housing)
If doubled-up in personal homes
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assessment needed for determination
Identification of students
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Case by case situation
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Individualized by student
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Private conversation with the parent/guardian or person acting in
the role of the parent or student
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What basic information do you need?
Identification – most important
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Implement the law
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Remove all the clutter!!
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Get rid of all the baggage
Use only what you need to make the decision
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Shortest distance between 2 points (straight line)
Leave the baggage behind
What do I mean?
USDE: Nighttime Residency Codes
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Code 1: Shelter
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Code 2: Doubled up
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Code 3: Unsheltered
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Code 4: Hotel/Motel
Code 1 - Shelter
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Do you have any shelters in your district area?
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Churches that may have accommodate a family?
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Do you have shelters for youth?
Do you know the people who work in those shelters?
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What schools are these shelters located in?
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Do you have their cell phones?
Do the schools know about them?
Which shelters offer transitional housing?
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Do they have private homes as transitional housing?
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Did you know that shelters are supposed to collaborate with the LEA
homeless liaison to address educational needs of the children
based on the HEARTH? (page 5)
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Do you have a shelter referral form?
Code 2 – Doubled Up
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Living with others due to a lose of housing (catastrophic life event)
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How complicated is to determine a lose when a family is doubled
up?
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How does your Student Residency Questionnaire (SRQ) help you?
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Do you have control of updating/changing your SRQ?
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How do you determine lose?
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Just moved in from out of state
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Is there a difference if a family suffers a lose in comparison to a
youth suffering a lose?
Code 2 - Doubled Up
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SAISD “Magical” Question:
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What happened to the house/apartment where you used to live that
brought you to this house/apartment?
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What happened over there that brought you over here?
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What kind of answers have you experienced?
scenarios
CPS took custody of a twelfth grader and placed
her at the shelter. She was enrolled in the school
where she is temporarily housed. A few of the
student’s instructors at the previous school were
advocating for this student saying “she has been
doing so well and was one of the schools best
students and leaders”. They said the student was
devastated about having to move and enroll at
another school.
What are the student’s options?
Melissa
Melissa is currently 17 years old, 12th grader, 2
months pregnant and living with her
mother. Mother finds out that student is pregnant
and tells her “Now that you’re pregnant, you have
to go live with your boyfriend. You made a
decision to get pregnant so this is the
consequence.” Student is upset because she
does not want to live with boyfriend and boyfriend
does not live in the district. She is afraid that she
will have to transfer to a new school for her senior
year.
Hector
You speak with a young mother (25 years) who
wants to enroll her child, Hector, a PK aged child. In
speaking with her, she tells you that she has lived
with her mother all her life and wants him child to go
to school. She has been told that the household
earns too much money to qualify for PK. In speaking
further, she tells you that last year she went to live
with her boyfriend (child’s father). She tells you that
she could not stay with him because they could not
live together.
Samantha
You receive a phone from the school counselor
about a 16 year old student who has left her
mother’s house. In speaking with Samantha, she
tells you that she is living with friends and has been
like this for the past month. She also tells you that
her mother keeps calling her to come home. She
tells you that she does not like her mother’s house
rules. She says her mother want her in the house by
10 pm every night. She wants to stay out until
midnight.
LaToya
A mother comes in with her 15 year old to
enroll her in school where they are housed.
The mother indicates that her teen daughter is
in foster care. Mother indicates that she did
not want to stay with her foster parent and
instead she came to live with her mother at
her mother’s home.
Code – 3 Unsheltered
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Car, park, trailer, abandon building
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Coloñias (neighborhoods)
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No running water or electricity
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Disconnected utilities?
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Substandard housing
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What does that look like?
How often do you use this code and for what purposes?
Code 4 - Hotels/Motels
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Ask the “magical” question: What happened to the house/apt
where you used to live that brought you to this hotel/motel?
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Do you have a listing of the low cost hotels in your district?
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Do the managers have your contact information?
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Is this choice listed in your SRQ as a possible residence?
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Do you have families that live there in comparison to the ones that
are there temporarily?
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How can you tell the difference?
Scenario
A family comes in for enrollment indicating that they live in a hotel.
What do you need to know to support a homelessness determination?
What if they tell you that they live there and have been there for the
past several years?
identification
methodologies
Technology Department
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Research & Evaluation or Student data services
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Inquire about how data reports are generated
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How can you access student data and have reports generated based
on the students you identify and/or serve
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Be specific as to how you want the report to look like
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Student name, ID, campus, etc.
SAISD sample
Transportation Requests
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How do you monitor your transportation requests?
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SAISD sample
Do you get requests from neighboring districts?
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Can you identify who those children are?
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SAISD sample
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How will you know if some of these children enrolled in your district?
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How do you keep track?
Shelter Requests
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Do you have a shelter referral form?
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Included in each shelter intake process
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Email to program offices
What kinds of connections do you have with the shelters prior to the
beginning of the school year?
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Identify more than 200 before school starts
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Did you know that shelters need documentation showing
collaboration with LEAs?
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How involved are you with your local CoC? IMPORTANT
PK Round UP Event
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SAISD ensures enrollment for those identified given available space
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What are the PK qualifications for your state?
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Homelessness
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Foster
Have you trained you ECE staff?
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identify more than 100 additional siblings
Can they make determinations on their own? You need help with
identification and you need your documentation!
When, in your district, does this event occur?
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Integration, inclusion of homelessness issues
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Set up a booth
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Work with ECE to integrate the determination of homelessness in the process
Students not Enrolled
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Identify students prior to enrollment
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Don’t enroll
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What do you do?
Work with your student data services people
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Work at a system that will work individually for you at your district
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SAISD currently – 14 students
Speak with the parent – follow up
United Way (Bexar Necesities)
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Email system supporting basic needs of county residents
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Hard to fulfill unique needs
Members of this system are:
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Non profits
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Churches
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Shelters, etc.
Requests will identify families who may be homeless
do you have any other ideas that
you use?
Thank You!
M. Estella Garza, LMSW, SSWS
Sr. Coordinator; Family & Student
Support Services
Homelessness, Foster Care, Social Work
1700 Tampico, Ste. 114
San Antonio, Texas – 78207
[email protected]