S3.E6 - Homeless Education, McKinney-Vento and Special Populations

MCAH Homeless Awareness Month Toolkit
Common Signs of Homelessness
School House Connection Common Questions
Covenant House - Sleep Out Movement
Wayne RESA Homeless Education page

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(Announcer}: Welcome to getting to the core, a Wayne County regional educational service agency podcast. We encourage you to connect with us as we examine a variety of educational themes and hopefully cultivate a few seeds that get to the core of our mission leading and learning for all.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Good afternoon in celebration of national hunger and homeless awareness week, we would like to welcome you to our podcast. My name is Dr. Sharrece Farris, I'm the manager of state and federal programs, charter authorizations and special populations here at Wayne RESA. We also have here on our called Mary Bamrick, our amazing administrative assistant and Sabrina Rudy our special populations consultant. Our special populations department supports the foster care liaison and homeless education liaisons in each district throughout Wayne County and PSA's (Public School Academy’s).  As we recognize national homeless awareness week this month, our team would like to provide you with some information about our work. The McKinney-Vento law and why raising awareness on this subject is so important. Welcome to our podcast. What we've developed is a number of questions that we get on a continuous basis to kind of set the foundation of our podcast. One of our top question is, what is McKinney-Vento? Sabrina Would you like to share your thoughts on this?

Sabrina Rudy: Sure Dr. Farris, thank you. So, the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act is a federal law. It was created to support the enrollment and education of students experiencing homelessness. McKinney Vento is intended to provide students experiencing homelessness the same educational opportunities as housed students, by removing as many of the barriers to learning as possible. So there are some rights that are afforded to McKinney Vento eligible students and some of those include transportation to and from their school of origin and extracurriculars. Um so when I mentioned the school of origin, that also includes the right to attend their school of origin which is the school that they attended when they first became homeless. Um it also includes immediate enrollment and support from their district homeless education liaison.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Thank you Sabrina. Often times I know what you've been on the forefront of a lot of this work. We have a question of the actually defining McKinney Vento to a number of our stakeholders throughout the county. Can you share what you've shared on a continuous basis and says relates to that? Sabrina Rudy: Sure. So we have, we support McKinney-Vento at a regional level. Um There is a federal grant that there is a state coordinator that oversees that um that grant and then each regional area has a McKinney Vento program to support all of the district liaisons. So, at Wayne RESA, we primarily provide services to our districts and PSA's by providing technical support for our liaisons, helping build capacity and understanding the law. Oftentimes we feel questions around eligibility, transportation. Because we know that many of the situations that arise around homelessness are very specific case by case basis with, with varying degrees of circumstances on helping determine whether or not a family is McKinney-Vento eligible. We also work to raise awareness around homelessness and what the homeless definition is, according to McKinney-Vento. Increasing identification. And then there are, there's a small grant with resources.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: With Mary serving as our administrative assistant, oftentimes Mary receives the bulk of the calls that come in when we're trying to identify eligibility as relates to McKinney-Vento. Mary, would you mind sharing some of the misconceptions or misunderstandings as it relates to perhaps McKinney Vento or like a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) issue?

Mary Bamrick: Absolutely, thank you. Dr Farris. One thing that I noticed a lot is that the definition between homelessness for HUD and the definition for the McKinney Vento law is a little bit different. For the HUD definition, it's literally "homeless". So, a literally homeless individual or family is an individual or family who lacks a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence. The individual or families, primary nighttime residence may be a public or private place, that's not meant for human habitation. The difference between the McKinney-Vento act, they also include individuals who lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence. That the definition also includes Children who are sharing housing due to economic hardship or loss of housing. In this case we call it doubled up. That is one of the main differences that could be confusing when identifying McKinney Vento eligible students.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Thank you Mary. Sabrina, by chance can you please share resources that we have available here at Wayne RESA and perhaps even more information on the duties of the homeless liaisons that serve as additional resources to our county?

Sabrina Rudy: Sure. So we provide, you know, as mentioned before, technical assistance to our liaisons. We provide training, we hold quarterly meetings for liaisons to help. Each liaison understands what their duties are as the liaison. There are actually 10 assigned duties through the law of McKinney-Vento and I'll just name a few of them. One of the duties of the lease and is two is around identification. Another duty is around making sure that students are enrolled. You may have a family that has lost their housing and maybe in the transition to another place, have misplaced some of that important paperwork that school districts often require in order to enroll. So, the liaison is there to help make sure during the enrollment process that that doesn't become a barrier for students enrolling in that school. Another thing is really making sure that the families and the children have access to the services that they have a right to, such as free and reduced lunch. Also, the Title One services that are afforded to students to help overcome barriers. So those are just a few of the 10 liaison duties that are required. So, we help our liaisons understand what those duties are and how to fulfill them.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Ms. Rudy, how can a district or PSA identify who their liaison is?

Sabrina Rudy:  So, every district by law is required to identify their homeless education liaison in the educational entity master in CEPI (Center for Educational Performance and Information). So, that's primarily where MDE will go to communicate. If they have any communication to the homeless liaison in the district, they're going to look for that contact information in the EEM (Educational Entity Master) as it's referred to sometimes. If a family is looking to find out who their liaison is, there are other ways that they could find that out as well. And, we can cover that now if you want. But, um they could call Wayne RESA and we could definitely provide who that contact information is. They could ask at their district to the homeless liaison is, or the McKinney-Vento liaison, it's sometimes referred to. They could also look on our website and we have a link to all of the homeless liaisons within all of the districts and PSA's in Wayne County.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Keeping in mind that our department also provides support to our state and federal program leaders in areas specifically as it pertains to their ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) grants, their title One grants and things of that nature. We oftentimes do get calls where we're being asked how can we financially support the needs of this population of students and families. And I oftentimes want to share with school districts and PSA's, to utilize your title One funding. Title One funding supports McKinney Vento and homeless initiatives. Your Title Five also supports homeless initiatives and also your ESSER dollars. So, leverage those fundings were available to work with districts and PSA's To be an innovator to secure funding and resources to properly service these families. Sabrina, by chance, would you mind sharing some of the signs that the liaisons and we as Wayne RESA, see that are coming through that give us an idea of a family or student that may be experiencing homelessness?

Sabrina Rudy: Sure. Um you know, there are some warning signs to look for that may help you recognize this. Um but really, ultimately, it's having a relationship with the families and um making sure that all of the educators within the educational setting have an understanding of what to look for. So they know to make sure the homeless liaison is and is aware. So, the first thing of course is having that relationship with the family so that if you do notice some of these signs that you're able to um respectfully have a conversation around what their living situation maybe. So, some of the things that you may look for is a lack of continuity in their education, such as um their attendance changing or they're beginning to come late to school, which may indicate that they have moved further away from the school and they're somehow getting transported back. Another thing is to look for some unmet um medical or dental needs, um transportation issues, numerous absences, as we mentioned. Absences on days when students are asked to bring things, special things from home or not being able to even complete homework. They're being asked to. Some families may be in a shelter, and they may not have a setting that they're able to complete homework. a lack of hygiene, support hygiene. They may not have access to some facilities to make sure that they're washing up and washing their clothes and then social and behavioral concerns such as poor or short attention span, um extreme shyness, clinging behavior. So, there are many different signs that you could look for. Um we really want to make sure that we're raising our awareness though for all educators to watch out for any signs just so that they can have that conversation Because the biggest thing really is to make sure that you protect the privacy of that family and of course, work with the family with some discretion so that you can help support the family and in overcoming those barriers that are faced.

Dr. Sharrece Farris: Thank you Miss Rudy Miss Bamrick, would you mind closing us out by sharing with our stakeholders some information we have available on our website, that supports from this awareness and any special events that may be coming up?

Mary Bamrick: Absolutely. We have several links um that we're going to share with just some common questions about students experiencing homelessness, some common signs that you can look out for. We also have additional resources that you can find on our web page that will lead you to just different resources in the community that can help out. I also wanted to highlight, there is an event that covenant house is putting on. It's called the Sleep Out event. We'll have this information linked with the podcast so that you can go to that page. There are many different events that are being hosted throughout Wayne County as far as the homeless awareness week. If you have any ideas or if you know of anything, you can always reach out. Or if you have any questions about McKinney-Vento, reach out to us at special pops at RESA dot net. Dr. Farris, Sabrina Rudy and myself all have access to that and we're happy to answer any of your questions at any time.

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(Announcer): Thanks again for listening to getting to the core. To access previous episodes along with transcripts and additional resources, please visit RESA dot net forward slash podcast.

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