UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Homelessness often conjures images of people subsiding in shelters or on city streets, but according to school officials, those instances represent a minority of homeless cases seen by area school districts.
“There are many situations we’ve come across over the years,” said Albert Gallatin Area School District homeless coordinator Chris Pegg. “We take it on a case-by-case basis.”
While cases involving students living in homeless shelters exist, said Pegg, a student is considered homeless simply if his or her living situation is not a permanent one.
According to state Department of Education (PDE) figures, out of the 26,273 individual reported cases of homelessness among Pennsylvania youth during the 2014-15 school year, less than a third of students lived in shelter or transitional housing, and only 1 percent lived unsheltered.
The majority of cases - nearly two-thirds - were students who were “doubled up,” or living with family or friends after being displaced from their homes.
The designation of homelessness is all about how the term is defined under a federal law that school districts follow.
“We use the McKinney-Vento Act, which provides guidelines on whether a child’s considered homeless,” said Connellsville Area homeless liaison Traci Kuhns.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, enacted in 1987 to provide the basis for agency funding to combat homelessness and later amended to include protection for homeless youth in public education, effectively defines how schools must handle homelessness.
Those who oversee homeless programs in the Mid-Mon Valley use the McKinney-Vento Act to define what constitutes a homeless student.
“The McKinney-Vento Act is the guideline we follow for different scenarios where kids can be identified as homeless,” said Georgette McGavitt, homeless coordinator in Belle Vernon Area School District.
“We use it to tell us what we should be looking for. We look for students who are missing a lot of school days, who shy from things or who do not want to be involved in things.”
McGavitt said the act also provides protection for the districts in the event that someone falsely claims to be homeless in order to enroll their child or children in a new district.
Adam Brewer, who is the homeless director for Charleroi Area School District, said the act is the guideline for declaring homelessness and who is responsible for all needs of the student.
“Basically, it is the law, the guideline we have to use to meet their needs,” Brewer said.
Brewer said most families will approach district officials if their situation changes to the extent that their child is considered homeless under the law.
“But there are subtle things, like if the student comes in to school wearing the same clothes on multiple days,” Brewer said.
The act defines homeless children and youths as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.”
This can take many forms.
It may mean living in a shelter or transitional housing program, with or without a parent. It may mean living in a place not ordinarily used for regular sleeping accommodations, like a vehicle, park, hotel or motel, or campground.
Sometimes it means a child has run away from home or has been abandoned by a parent and has taken to the streets or a temporary residence.
More often it means living with relatives or friends due to the family suffering a disaster or economic hardship.
Uniontown Area homeless liaison Terry Williams said that while students living in shelters - such as the City Mission Home Again Youth Shelter in Uniontown - comprise most of district’s transient homeless population, the majority of homeless students are doubled up with another family.
“Typically it’s if there is some kind of economic situation that has caused them to be evicted and they have to move in with family or friends until they can afford to get a place of their own again,” said Williams.
If a student’s home situation improves by becoming permanent, his or her homeless status can be lifted, Williams added.
Of Albert Gallatin’s homeless cases, about 75 percent comprise of students whose families are doubled up, having moved in with friends or relatives, said Pegg. He added that the district has a protocol in place to help identify homelessness under McKinney-Vento.
When a student enrolls in district, Pegg said, the district issues a student residency questionnaire.
“It checks the type of situation the student is living in, and it is a flagging system for us whenever they might be homeless,” he said.
Kuhns said Connellsville has a similar procedure, using a form to help identify students experiencing homelessness.
“If we believe a child may be homeless, we can check off the information,” said Kuhns. “We make sure we know why they’re homeless. We make sure we know if there is anything needed for them to maintain their schooling.”
All homeless cases are electronically logged into a system that is reported to the state, Kuhns said.
While a student’s improved living situation is one way districts see a reduction in their homeless headcounts, they will also see a change if a homeless students graduates.
Laurel Highlands pupil personnel services supervisor Lori DiCenzo said a homeless student is no longer counted among a district’s homeless population upon graduating.
“Once a student receives a diploma, they no longer receive school-age services,” she said, adding that any additional services the student requires falls on agencies outside of the district.
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Staff writer Chris Buckley contributed to this report.
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Information from: Herald-Standard, https://www.heraldstandard.com/
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