Teachers: Helping a Homeless Student?

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I just received word that one of my students is homeless. This is my first time working with a student with that designation. I teach children with special needs- specifically MR. I'm wondering from those that have been there if there is anything specific I can do to support this student during this time.

 

[tasha99]

Is this student with his or her parents or alone? When DD had a homeless classmate, he was a teen who was kicked out of his house. I went to adult and family services to get phone numbers for programs that house homeless teens and passed them on to the school. What the teachers did, if anything, I don't know. I think he ended up moving in with his girlfriend's family.

 

[ksjayhawks]

I work with alternative students and we have had students and even whole families homeless from time to time. If your school has a social worker, I am sure they know about it--is she/he the one that told you? If the student was the one, mention it to the social worker. They will talk to the student and parents to get more information and see what they can do to help.

Personally in the classroom, now that you are aware of the situation, look for signals from the student that they may need more care and understanding some days, ask if they would like to talk to someone--counselor or social worker so they can vent, deal with any misbehavior and disruptions with this thought in mind.

 

[Cindy B]

I

Well, I knew I had homeless students or students that were one time homeless when we were going over vocab words. The word was shelter and one little girl volunteered "that is where you go when you are homeless. Or its the place we go when daddy hits momma!"

I knew a few of my kids and thier families were either squatting in abandoned buildings (I saw the houses) or lived under the bridge part of the time.

I had a 100% free lunch school-- I made sure they ate. Our school had a free breakfast and lunch program so I made sure they ate those times. The school also had a good afterschool program where they could stay until 630. I made sure those kids signed up for the program.

This type of situation happened a lot to many kids in the school and I don't know how involved the counselor was.. He knew but to me he didn't or couldn't do much about it.

 

[Sonya]

At our school we can't call anyone like DSS or whomever, ourselves. So you need to go councellers and tell them what you know and they will take care of it. What you can do is to make sure they have had food. I always have granola bars in my desk for this type of situation. (I teach in a low-income school) I can always get it to them w/o the class seeing. If the student questions me I tell them they looked hungry and thought they would work better with some brain food.
Good luck, it's very hard to see happen.

 

[coinkc]

The biggest thing I learned when I had a homeless student in my classroom was that these kids had more important things to think about than reading and math. So even though I still made sure to give him all the extra attention i could to make sure he was keeping up with the class, there were times when you could just tell his mind was elsewhere. And that was okay.

Homework was put aside and not an issue either. He still checked out library books but they stayed at school. Anything that needed to go home, I made sure to hand him specifically and told him to be sure and tell his parents about it. I also only sent home the things that were important...no sports flyers, or junk like that. The least amount of things the family had to deal with the better.

I brought in birthday treats for him because I knew the family couldn't afford to and didn't want him to feel left out.

 

[MM27]

I've had a few students over the years that were living in motels. The whole family in one room. One I only knew about because I pass the motel on my way to work and I saw the family coming out in the morning as I was passing by. I never mentioned it because I didn't feel it was my business since I wasn't informed.

One girl that I had last year told me. I discreetly asked her to ask her mom if there was anything I could buy for them to make it easier for them. Her mom sent me a list of a few things like bottled water and snacks and was very appreciative when I got them for her.

My school also keeps a closet of clothing and jackets available for parents that want/need to get things for their children.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's the whole family- a hotel type situation. The kid is being brought in a taxi from out of district as part of the federal homeless student act. I know he is also staying for after school.

We use very direct interventions and most of my kids won't do homework or bring it back (or if they do, it's wrong), so I don't assign homework. We do have a social worker, she is the one who is in charge of the homeless program in our school and she arranged the transportation. I asked if there was anything specific I could do to support him, and her reply (via e-mail) was "nope."

I just want to do what I can to make things easier. This is a student who has had some significant behaviors (pretty par for the course in my classroom), although they are by no means an every day thing.

Earlier in the year I was slipping granola bars into the backpack of a student I was pretty sure was not getting fed at home. I could certainly do something like that again.

Please forgive me if this sounds ignorant, but if they're in a motel, I'm assuming there probably isn't a kitchen for them to cook in which means if they have food it's probably cold meals- right? We have a proram called "back snacks" that I can look into, but I think a lot of it is food that needs to be cooked, so I'm not sure that that will be helpful for them.

 

[sunnyday123]

Jessi,
I can't imagine having children in your class, or any class that are homeless. There is just something so very wrong with that, and I think it's amazing you ( and any other teacher handling this type of situation ) are trying to make a difference.

 

[minnieandmickey]

Being deemed homeless in an educational environment can be as drastic as living in a car or on the street to living with a friend or family member because you cannot provide their own shelter. Unfortunately it is a lot more common this year than in years past due to the economy and the amout of people losing their jobs. In our district it usually mean our Health Services department helps them with the services they will need. By law we have to provide our state (CA) with a list of students that are homeless under the guidelines above. And because they are homeless they have the right to stay in the school they are in until they find a permanent home situation, to give them some sort of stability in the chaos they are living in.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

The long-stay hotels in our area do have a cooking area in the hotel rooms and provide a free breakfast. Not sure if the student is staying at a long-term hotel or motel. Motel would be less apt to provide any type of cooking area and most likely only a hot-plate would only be allowed.

I would make sure that the student has a lunch to eat and if you feel they are not eating more at home, make sure no allergies or underlying conditions apply before you drop something into the backpack. A better option would be to make sure that they are getting a "larger" snack at after school and possibly more milk or juice. (in our after-school program only a small snack/juice were provided).

And I realize how hard this must be, but if the higher ups ask that you do nothing, it may be best to follow their lead. There may be a reason for it that you do not understand right now.

 

[ksjayhawks]

They may be eating at a soup kitchen or other food program. Is the hotel associated with any program that might provide food?

 

[Cindy B]

The long-stay hotels in our area do have a cooking area in the hotel rooms and provide a free breakfast. Not sure if the student is staying at a long-term hotel or motel. Motel would be less apt to provide any type of cooking area and most likely only a hot-plate would only be allowed.


And I realize how hard this must be, but if the higher ups ask that you do nothing, it may be best to follow their lead. There may be a reason for it that you do not understand right now.

I agree on both points.

The good thing you know is that they are in a motel. That in itself is better than huddling with blankets under the bridge or in an abandoned house with no roof and they have to crawl in through a window frame. (I saw this!). At least in a motel they have heat, electricity, running water, bed, couch, and even some entertainment such as TV or even a pool.
Quite frankly --it sounds awful to us, but the motel is a great situation.


If the higher ups say nothing you can do, it is best that you do nothing.

Quite frankly, I wanted to help all my students. Every single one of them had an issue of some type (parents in jail, no home, siblings in jail, drug problems, abuse at home, limited English, limited income, caught with drugs, caught hustling on the bus, no parents at all -and the 8th grade cousin was taking care of them) and quite frankly I wanted to help them all -- fix them all -- so to speak. These kids were 3rd graders.

I would wind up home crying because I couldn't do anything permanent to fix the situations were in. I would tell the authorities--counselor and let it go. I did what I was required to do and I had to trust the process.

 

[emma'smom]

I've had homeless kids in my class before and it is hard.

First step (and it sounds like this has been done) was always to put them in touch with social workers/school counselors. I would call DSS when needed. Teachers in NYC were mandated reporters for abuse---while this wasn't an "abuse" report, but a family in need report, I think the principle is the same--to assure that children are safe (and, in this case, their families too).

Second- I made sure they ate their free breakfast and lunch and grabbed "extras" (whole fruit, sealed cereal containers, etc) for their backpacks later. Technically these were supposed to be discarded at our school, but the kids would grab them and I would look the other way.

Third- I would buy back packs, jackets, clothing, etc. I would either just send them home with the child and say "This is for you from the school." or, if the family wasn't as willing to accept help, I would hold "raffles" for gift bags containing the same items. Then "fix" the raffles so that the student I was concerned about would win. If they won it, it wasn't a hand-out.....and they would take it home. I would throw some fun things in as well (like Sponge Bob slippers, etc).

Over the course of the year, I would run into multiple students who needed various things--so the "raffles" weren't unique. We'd also have other raffles for fun stuff in the classroom (not "fixed") so it didn't seem like just the neediest kids would win something.

The whole raffle thing was a management strategy I used for class incentives, etc. A child (or whole class) did something particularly well and they could put a raffle ticket into the jar with their name on it.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's not so much that the "higher ups" told me to do nothing. The social worker just said there were no specific things I needed to do to support him. I don't know anything about the hotel other than the city it is located in. I did talk to our social worker today about the back snacks program and we placed his name at the top of the waiting list. That will at least give him food for the weekend.

I just didn't know about anything specific to look for in the classroom or to do to help him be successful at school. I don't know how much notice he had that he was moving. This family has moved a lot- it is mind boggling to me the number of different schools he has been to (and he is in 2nd grade) so it's not like it's new to him. But I'm sure it's hard on them to suddenly have to leave home for an unknown situation.

 

[MrsPete]

I taught two brothers once who were homeless. They "lived with" their mom, who was extremely mentally ill. It was quite some time before I realized just what was going on. It's harder in high school because the kids hide their situation. I can't say that I did anything to be helpful. I didn't realize the truth until the family hit a crisis, and then they were gone a few days later. Since then I've been more aware, but IF any of my students since then have been homeless, I haven't known about it.

I've had a number of students who were what I call "voluntarily homeless". These are teens who choose not to follow their parents' rules, so they move out and choose to live with friends. Most often, the voluntarily homeless are senior girls who choose to go live with their already-graduated boyfriends. When I've become aware of these things, I've called the parents to ask what's going on, and it's always a variation of the same story: "We won't allow ______, so our teen has chosen to leave. Because she's over 16 the police won't get involved. If she chooses to ______, she's welcome to return home."

The voluntarily homeless are a whole different story.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Jessi,

I don't know how old the child is (which would possibly alter my response), but you might just give him/her the positive words and a little extra encouragement. I've worked in homeless shelters and transitional housing off and on for a long time and it's tough. Too often the kids needs get lost in the focus on stabilizing the parents.

If the child is a good reader, give them a book with an encouraging note in it...along the lines of "you're doing great!" Or maybe a special pencil that says good job if they achieve a (minor) milestone. Whatever you do though, don't single the child out....they may already feel "different" enough (you know, can't have friends over, etc.). Be sure that this child AND all the others know that you genuinely care about them (which I know you do).

(As an aside, I remember one little girl I worked with at a previous job was thrilled to have a "Special Recognition" certificate from her teacher for doing something...though I can't remember what it was. I do know that the certificate meant the world to her. She kept it in a "special envelope" until I surprised her one day with a frame for her. She was so proud that she had to hang it in her room at temporary home and wanted it above her bed so that everyone could see it when they came into her room.)

The biggest gift you can give this child is a great educational experience...make sure that they LOVE learning. That will be what changes things for this child as an adult and for their children.

Bear in mind that most homeless programs have a limited hotel stay (30 to 60 days) so the family may be moving again soon. Be sure to stay on top of things with the school social worker so that when the family moves again, transportation is again arranged for the family's new living situation.

Staying in the same school with the same teacher is absolutely critical to a homeless child. Unfortunately, I've seen situations where a child will attend as many as 7 different schools in one year (if the school doesn't work hard to keep a homeless kid in class) and too many different schools to count over their educational career. And then we wonder why some kids don't make it.....!

I'm so glad you're a teacher!


Karen