Identification of children in homeless situations
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Transcript Identification of children in homeless situations
identification of
children in
homeless situations
San Antonio, Texas
County with 17 different school districts
San Antonio ISD
Inner city school district
third largest in the county: 54,000
93% economically disavantaged
Home to 20 different sites that house children temporarily
Rank among the largest in the county to enroll children in foster care
Tourist Mecca
Home to the famous River Walk
Home of The Alamo and several Historical Missions
Home to the REAL Mexican Food Restaurants
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
McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act of 2011. A Definition
A simple Definition for people
Determining Homelessness – examples
Methodology of identification
Student Residency Questionnaires (SRQ)
Research & Evaluation
Shelter engagement
Neighboring School Districts
Students not enrolled
Session Goals
Understand the definition of homelessness based on law
Acquire practice in determining homelessness
Have more of an understanding of how to create partnerships in
support of identification
Learning none traditional ways of identification using your own data
Understanding the law
Sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic
hardship, or similar reason
Doubled-up or couch-surfing
75.5% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds due to lack of
adequate alternative accommodations
Motels: 2.4% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
Understanding the law
Living in emergency or transitional shelters
18.2% of SAISD students during 2013-2014
Living in a public or private place not designed for humans to live
Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus
or train stations, or similar settings
3.8% SAISD students during 2013-2014
Awaiting foster care placement
What is your state’s interpretation related to foster and homelessness
Simple Definition
If children live in:
Shelter (emergency or transitional)
Emergency (more than 27 shelters housing children in SAISD)
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.
If doubled-up in following location – family is homeless
Section 8 housing
Courts / Projects
Any public housing opportunity (HUD supportive housing)
If doubled-up in personal homes
assessment needed for determination
Identification of students
Case by case situation
Individualized by student
Private conversation with the parent/guardian or person acting in
the role of the parent or student
What basic information do you need?
Identification – most important
Implement the law
Remove all the clutter!!
Get rid of all the baggage
Use only what you need to make the decision
Shortest distance between 2 points (straight line)
Leave the baggage behind
What do I mean?
USDE: Nighttime Residency Codes
Code 1: Shelter
Code 2: Doubled up
Code 3: Unsheltered
Code 4: Hotel/Motel
Code 1 - Shelter
Do you have any shelters in your district area?
Churches that may have accommodate a family?
Do you have shelters for youth?
Do you know the people who work in those shelters?
What schools are these shelters located in?
Do you have their cell phones?
Do the schools know about them?
Which shelters offer transitional housing?
Do they have private homes as transitional housing?
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)
Do you have a shelter referral form?
Code 2 – Doubled Up
Living with others due to a lose of housing (catastrophic life event)
How complicated is to determine a lose when a family is doubled
up?
How does your Student Residency Questionnaire (SRQ) help you?
Do you have control of updating/changing your SRQ?
How do you determine lose?
Just moved in from out of state
Is there a difference if a family suffers a lose in comparison to a
youth suffering a lose?
Code 2 - Doubled Up
SAISD “Magical” Question:
What happened to the house/apartment where you used to live that
brought you to this house/apartment?
What happened over there that brought you over here?
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
Car, park, trailer, abandon building
Coloñias (neighborhoods)
No running water or electricity
Disconnected utilities?
Substandard housing
What does that look like?
How often do you use this code and for what purposes?
Code 4 - Hotels/Motels
Ask the “magical” question: What happened to the house/apt
where you used to live that brought you to this hotel/motel?
Do you have a listing of the low cost hotels in your district?
Do the managers have your contact information?
Is this choice listed in your SRQ as a possible residence?
Do you have families that live there in comparison to the ones that
are there temporarily?
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
Research & Evaluation or Student data services
Inquire about how data reports are generated
How can you access student data and have reports generated based
on the students you identify and/or serve
Be specific as to how you want the report to look like
Student name, ID, campus, etc.
SAISD sample
Transportation Requests
How do you monitor your transportation requests?
SAISD sample
Do you get requests from neighboring districts?
Can you identify who those children are?
SAISD sample
How will you know if some of these children enrolled in your district?
How do you keep track?
Shelter Requests
Do you have a shelter referral form?
Included in each shelter intake process
Email to program offices
What kinds of connections do you have with the shelters prior to the
beginning of the school year?
Identify more than 200 before school starts
Did you know that shelters need documentation showing
collaboration with LEAs?
How involved are you with your local CoC? IMPORTANT
PK Round UP Event
SAISD ensures enrollment for those identified given available space
What are the PK qualifications for your state?
Homelessness
Foster
Have you trained you ECE staff?
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?
Integration, inclusion of homelessness issues
Set up a booth
Work with ECE to integrate the determination of homelessness in the process
Students not Enrolled
Identify students prior to enrollment
Don’t enroll
What do you do?
Work with your student data services people
Work at a system that will work individually for you at your district
SAISD currently – 14 students
Speak with the parent – follow up
United Way (Bexar Necesities)
Email system supporting basic needs of county residents
Hard to fulfill unique needs
Members of this system are:
Non profits
Churches
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]