May — When Impossible Became Possible
May — a Month of Significant Milestones
May recollections: first communion, confirmation, graduation from grade school, high school and college; creation of HEAR US Inc., and so many more memories, including…
Doing the impossible never seems possible. But I did it, with the help of a small band of believers. Way back in May of 1994, we succeeded in attaining passage of the first state law that removed barriers to education commonly encountered by students experiencing homelessness. Thirty years later, this little-big law, which morphed into federal legislation, continues to rankle some and inspire others.
Not quite the level of importance of Brown v. the Board of Education, but for the millions of homeless school-age children, the federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth Act (part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act) has been a vital tool for educational access. A crucial side benefit — it also connects students and their families to essential resources like food, clothing and housing.
Under this law, students may choose to stay in the school they attended before they lost housing. McKinney-Vento (M-V) also removes residency barriers if they’ve moved away from their area school. Compliance is the key. That’s the rub. And that’s why I’ve been on the road for the past 20 years, chronicling family homelessness and advocating for improved compliance to this little law I helped enact. Sadly, enforcement of this simple law continues to be necessary.
Some school officials in Pennsylvania are being schooled on the importance of the McKinney-Vento law. The PA legislature hopefully will soon validate the state’s need to comply with this federal statute. Districts in the Keystone State got caught giving kids the bum’s rush when they used residency investigations to deny students’ enrollment. The Center for Public Integrity has been investigating this issue, and reports that:
Pennsylvania’s current law is at odds with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. That federal law requires that school districts immediately enroll students experiencing housing insecurity — before, rather than after, a residency investigation — and provide them with various support services…
CPI has tracked the disregard of this important federal law in other states, too. School districts, including those in my former home state of Illinois, seem to think that these students don’t count. Educational stability can mean the difference between barely surviving and thriving. How can districts ignore wellbeing of hundreds thousands of kids?
Understandably, the fact that Congress has not allocated adequate funds to meet the horribly underestimated need is part of the problem. But when schools, required to report the level of student poverty, disregard the connection between poverty and homelessness, that’s inexcusable. If a district has a high level of poverty, they’ll have a high level of homelessness. Even a high school student knows that.
Nathan Yuan, as editor of Naperville (IL) Central High School’s newspaper, penned an insightful article last May that pointed to significant discrepancies of Illinois school districts’ count of homeless students. According to his analysis of federal and state data, Illinois districts under identified up to 55,000 students. He pointed to
…87 districts that failed to identify any students experiencing homelessness, despite having significant low-income student populations.
The Importance of This Law
I’ve interviewed scores of families and youth experiencing homelessness over the past 20 years. Kids and parents all over the country have echoed the same message — the importance of educational access and stability. In my 3-min. video, Tamu poignantly expresses the importance of McKinney-Vento’s existence (2:50 mark).
When deep into the grueling insanity of our efforts to get the IL Education for Homeless Children Act passed 30 years ago, I never would have dreamed that I’d spend 20 years living in a van, traveling backroads, filming stories the importance of school for families experiencing homelessness.
What Kept Me Going?
When I first started this venture, parents and kids alike, without any prompting, fervently shared their feelings about what school meant to them. I knew I was onto something. Sharing their stories and continuing my advocacy not only gave my life purpose, but strengthened the compliance of this little-big law that opened school doors for kids who need the stability of education.
My impossible mission would not have been possible unless families were willing to trust me and share their stories. They didn’t do it for money. They did it because it was the right thing to do, knowing that other families need encouragement and educators need to know how important MV is.
Also fueling my efforts — my board and our donors who faithfully and generously supported my impossible mission. They believed in the importance of giving families “voice and visibility.” School staff, especially the MV homeless liaisons, facilitated my efforts in districts across the country. Those who let me use their driveway to park and plug in, tap into their wifi, and use their shower, also contributed mightily.
Exciting By-Product
No, I’m not done. Thanks to the courage of Three Melissas, and the willingness of a colleague to co-author a book with me, we will be launching the first ever survival handbook for families experiencing homelessness.
Plans are underway for a national release of Three Melissas Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness in Raleigh, NC, in mid-September. The Three Melissas, courageous and articulate mothers I met and filmed in my travels, are shining a collective high-beam spotlight on this much-ignored issue of family homelessness. Their survival tips might surprise, and disturb, those who don’t know what families do when they have nowhere to call home.
It’s taken 30 years, but finally I think we’re at a turning point. These families can’t be ignored any longer. And I’m delighted that I can be an instrument in their emergence. They’ll be noisier than the cicadas and will last a lot longer, too. It’s about damn time!
