Tuesday, October 15, 2024
More than 18,500 homeless students enrolled in Wisconsin public schools in the 2022-23 academic school year, according to the National Center for Homeless Education.
Of those homeless children, 75.6% were “doubled up” – living with another family. Other students without a home of their own were living in motels or in shelters. An estimated 2.7$ were spending their nights an cars, parks, campgrounds or abandoned buildings.
In Wisconsin, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines homeless children and youths as those who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.
The state provides training and finding for a school district liaison team to ensure that homeless students receive the support they need to succeed in school.
Waupaca County’s three largest school districts are New London (2,102 students 2022-23), Waupaca (1,999), and Clintonville (1,180).
In New London 22 students have been classified as homeless this year.
Waupaca reported 34 homeless students in 2023-24. That number peaked in 2020-21 when there were 68 homeless students.
Clintonville reported 46 homeless students in 2023-24. This year, the district has 16 homeless students.
“We have parent surveys and staff let us know if they hear of a situation,” according to Laurie Schmidt, director of student services for the Waupaca School strict. “It goes up and down depending on what gets reported each year.”
Schmidt noted, “We have an online process versus an in-person process [that] is one factor that can change the dynamic as families who are doubled up, in a hotel, or with some type of roof over their head may not think they are homeless.”
“We have observed that the needs and number of students seem to be increasing overall, especially since the pandemic and the lack of affordable housing,” said Suzette Fountain, a Clintonville School District social worker and a member of the Mckinney-Vento liaison team.
“Our staff is currently working on identifying and qualifying students for the 2024/25 school who are homeless and affected by housing instability,” Fountain added. “It is our goal and responsibility to try to remove any barriers that we can for these extremely vulnerable students because students who have to move from school to school often have disruptions in their learning.”
New London Director of Pupil Services Kandi Martin said the number of homeless students in New London has remained “fairly consistent in the past couple of years.”
Impact on students
“The emotional and educational toll is huge,” said Pat Toney, president of the Board of Directors for the Mission of Hope House in New London. “I often ask myself, how can anyone who is dealing daily with challenges of homelessness, unemployment, financial stress, addiction, recovery and all the rest even begin to consider the first step toward education and emotional, physical health?”
Toney said individuals must first meet their basic needs before they can work toward the higher needs of emotional and self-actualization goals.”
“Students respond differently to emotional distress but it can be harder to focus on learning,” Schmidt said, regarding the effects of homelessness on children. “Children thrive the most with a stable, consistent and calm home. They also may have a greater number of absences from school and greater chance of health and mental health issues.”
Schmidt noted that students may have experienced traumatic events they are too young to understand.
“They can be staying with other people, families, friends, sleeping on coaches, floors, campers, cars,” Schmidt said. “Typically, a person who is in survival mode will struggle at work or school. They are preoccupied with where I am going to sleep, eat, and bathe.”
“Students who are experiencing homelessness or who are doubling up on housing are impacted socially, academically, mentally and physically,” Fountain said. “If a student is moving from district to district their normal routines are disrupted, having to re-learn different schools and different curricula, along with finding new social circles, which can be very challenging and emotionally draining leading to depression.”
Causes of homelessness
Fountain noted a myriad of social issues that contribute to the problem of homeless families.
She pointed to a lack of affordable housing, addictions, mental health issues of the parents, poverty and not having the resources to afford a home, loss of employment, difficulties with finding housing if there is an eviction or a criminal conviction, lack of homeless shelter availability, community resource scarcity, and bad credit.
“Due to trauma, addiction, mental health issues and at times lack of or fragmented services, families suffer more obstacles in finding sustainable housing, employment and transportation,” Toney said. “Many times poverty, homelessness and the stigma of their situation then prevents an easy route to recovery.”
Michael Hall, executive director of Mission of Hope House, identified three of the causes for homelessness: felony convictions, prior evictions and lack of affordable housing.
He noted that a felony conviction “makes renting next to impossible,” and if a person has a prior eviction, “it all but guarantees you will not get a rental.”
Hall said these issues are often related to mental health or substance abuse disorders.
Schmidt provided a long list of causes for homelessness: Poverty, lack of affordable of available housing, substance use, safety, domestic violence, mental illness, lack of social support, layoffs, moving frequently, family conflict, language or legal citizenship barriers, lack of transportation, health care bills, natural disasters.
“Some of the families are in a short term situation which may last a year or less,” Schmist said. “They can lack assistance with things like beds and furniture and transportation of these items. They can be found for free in the area but they do not have a way to transport large items at times.”
Resources
Fountain said the Clintonville School District has a Mckinney-Vento Team that meets regularly to work on addressing the needs, policies and supports for the students whose lack of adequate housing makes them vulnerable.
“We need to remove any barriers that we are able to in order to help them have the same opportunities as their non-displaced peers,” Fountain said.
Clintonville works with other organizations that can provide displaced families with basic resources.
Compassionate Connections provides assistance with personal hygiene products, diapers, emergency relief, vehicle repair, back-to-school clothing and a tools loan program.
Nutrition Mission supplies food and snacks for the weekend.
Clothing Closets are located in all Clintonville schools and available to all students.
The district also help with the purchase of school supplies and provides referrals to outside agencies, social workers, guidance counselors and mentors and other resources.
Displaced students are able to participate in athletics participation and receive needed supplies.
“Regardless of the student housing and financial situations we support all students,” said Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn. “Working with area agencies as well as internal Clintonville employees ensures that we provide as much support and services as possible. Most importantly, we continue to work together for the needs of students.”
Schmidt said Waupaca has social workers, counselors, psychologists and nurses available to support children at school.
“We have offered showers, clothing, housing resources in the community like Foundations for Living, food, rides, connecting them to as many resources as we can in the community and beyond because we are limited in this area with the resources we have,” Schmidt said. “The district has school supplies, a clothing closet, and limited funding for very specific reasons such as some assistance for school
lunches, and/or driving costs for those living out of district.”
According to Martin, the New London School District has set aside a portion of its budget to assist displaced students.
“Each building in the district also has a caring closet full of clothes, hygiene products and other needs that students may experience,” Martin said. “We receive many generous donations to keep these closets stocked, including coats, boots and snow pants for the winter months.”
Martin noted that Rotary Club donates backpacks and school supplies to students in need each year, Project Backpack provides weekend food for eligible students,
In addition to its own counselors and nurses, the New London School District can refer students to public services from the three counties it covers, as well as Rawhide Youth Services, Samaritan Counseling and Rogers Behavioral Health.
