Homeless Students and Their Unique

¶ … homeless students and their unique needs, both emotionally and academically. In addition, it will summarize one non-profit organization working to help homeless students, and what steps can be taken to replicate this program elsewhere. The paper will also detail the three reasons for providing school-based counseling, to these students.

Homeless Students

More than 1 million American children are homeless every year, according to the Institute for Children and Poverty. This startling figure continues to grow due to a variety of factors including: limited affordable housing, a shortage of employment positions that pay a living wage, and welfare reform. In the early 1980s, nearly all homeless people were men. Today, families, especially single-mothers, are a growing percentage (Swick, 2004). In fact, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004). These sobering statistics underscores the importance of meeting the unique needs of homeless students.

This paper will overview homeless students and their unique needs, both emotionally and academically. In addition, it will summarize one non-profit organization working to help homeless students, and what steps can be taken to replicate this program elsewhere. The paper will also detail the three reasons for providing school-based counseling, to these students.

Homeless Students Overview

According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act, homeless children are defined as those a) individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence (within the meaning of section 103(a)(1); and b) includes- i) children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care placement;

ii) children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings (within the meaning of section 103(a)(2)-;

iii) children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and iv) migratory children (as such term is defined in section 1309 of the Elementary and secondary Education Act of 1995) who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii). (as cited in Swick, 2004).

Even the basic necessities, for homeless students, are difficult to come by. As Vissing (2003) notes, where the end of summer marks the beginning of the traditional back-to-school shopping for many, homeless students rarely experience this. Homeless parents are able to afford paper, pencils, notebooks, crayons, and the plethora of other school supplies, for their children, let alone a new wardrobe. Despite looking forward to the beginning of school, for many homeless students, the first day back at school can be quite intimidating.

Even if they are not teased about their hand-me-down clothes and lack of school supplies, these students are still at a significant disadvantage when it comes to doing even their schoolwork. Homeless students don't have home libraries or Internet-access computers, as is so often required for homework assignments nowadays. And, even their in-school work can suffer if they do not have the right supplies, such as calculators and protractors (Vissing, 2003).

Homeless students are faced with a range of unique mental challenges that compound their fiscal challenges. Often these children do not have the social skills of their peers with homes. This is due to a variety of factors including the shame they feel about living in a shelter and being homeless or because of the frequent moves their families make. These children typically have less coping behaviors and less social support than their peers who are not homeless (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004).

One significant emotional challenge homeless students face more often than their peers who have homes, is depression and anxiety. 47% of homeless children experience clinically significant internalizing problems, including depression and anxiety. This is in direct contrast to only 21% of children, with homes, that experience these same problems. Other research has shown that approximately 20% of homeless children experienced such severe emotional difficulties that clinical intervention was warranted. Sadly, most of these homeless children never receive that intervention (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004).

In addition to emotional difficulties, such as anxiety and depression, domestic violence is more common in homeless students. Homeless mothers report a much higher incidence of domestic violence. Nearly 80% of homeless student's mothers reported incidents of violence (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004).

Homeless students also more frequently exhibit more externalizing problems, including delinquency and aggressive behavior, than students who have homes. Beginning as early as preschool, homeless students began to show increased levels of behavioral problems (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004). In addition to behavioral problems, academic achievement problems are common for homeless students as well.

Homeless elementary school children were found to have performed significantly lower on their academic tests, in comparison to children who were not homeless. In fact, "a lifetime history of homelessness negatively predicted student's academic performance as measured by grade point average" (as cited in Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004). Additionally, homeless students are diagnosed with learning disabilities at nearly twice the rate as students with homes.

The Yellow School Bus Project:

The Yellow School Bus Project, in Durham, New Hampshire, was created to help meet the physical needs of homeless students by providing them with school supplies and clothes, so that they can feel good about themselves and succeed in school. These gifts not only provide the student with much needed material items, but also it sends the message that they are smart and worthwhile, and that there are people out there that want to help them succeed (Vissing, 2003).

The creators of the Yellow School Bus Project offer three recommendations to those seeking to replicate their program, in other communities. First, one must have organizational support in place. Projects like Yellow School Bus become an integral part of the community and people come to depend on it, as such, continued support is necessary. A multi-organizational approach works best, with the involvement of religious, civic, fraternal, business, and non-profit organizations working together (Vissing, 2003).

The second step to success is identifying the children that need to be helped. As Vissing (2003) notes, "there are two groups of homeless school-age children, those who are easily identifiable and those who are not." Local shelters are the most obvious place to find homeless children, however there are many homeless students who are living doubled up with other families, or out of vehicles, abandoned buildings, or a variety of other places. For these children, contacting schools directly can help in identifying these harder to find homeless students. In addition, the project should be promoted through articles and advertisements to help spread the word.

The third suggestion is to be as specific as possible when asking for items from donors. Specifying that the program needs jeans for a size 10 boy or size 3 tennis shoes for a girl helps the donors feel more connected to the children they are helping. Request for donations can be made in a variety of ways, Vissing (2003) has found that personalized reminders and multiple reminders prior to the cut-off date are effective.

Three Reasons to Provide School-Based Counseling for Homeless Students:

Clearly, the above overview demonstrates the impact homelessness has on students. In addition to having to deal with the difficulties of not having the physical school supplies to be successful in school, these children are dealing with significant emotional issues as well. Because of this impact, there are three reasons why school-based counseling should be provided to homeless students. As mentioned earlier, "the intense social, emotional, behavioral, academic, and familial problems of children who are homeless hinder their ability to achieve success in school" (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004). These obstacles are found far less often in their peers that are not currently or have never been homeless.

The second reason why school-based counseling is imperative is the fact that homeless parents are often not able to obtain the counseling and psychological services needed for their children. Homeless parents typically do not have the resources available to seek out such help, whether it be monetary resources, or even something as simple as a telephone or a means to get to and from an appointment (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004).

The third reason why school-based counseling should be made available for homeless students is to work in accordance with the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. Title VII of the McKinney Act includes the authorization of the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program. This mandate instructs both state and local education agencies to remove barriers for academic success for homeless students (Baggerly & Borkowski, 2004). By providing school-based counseling, school counselors cannot only help homeless students achieve social success, but academic success as well. "Homeless students and their parents develop their 'schema' of what schools are through direct experiences, including the messages they receive related to access and participation in social and educational activities" (Swick, 2000, p. 165).