Homeless kids steered into regular schools

In a supportive setting like the Pappas school, children are not embarrassed to make their needs known, supporters say, and because all the children are in similar circumstances there is no particular stigma attached to homelessness.

But the existence of such special schools may mask the problem and allow society to continue to ignore homeless children, say supporters of the new law.

Schools for the homeless "become a sort of Band-Aid, almost an institutionalized response," says Patricia Julianelle, staff attorney for the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty in Washington. "Public schools feel they don't need to – or perhaps don't want to – help the children."

Schools like Pappas are useful, she agrees, but should be encouraged to transition into community resource centers for homeless children, and leave the job of education to the mainstream schools.

Homeless students "want to be with their friends in a normal environment," says Ms. Julianelle. "We have seen that when they are they do better, their test scores go up, they are happy."

One of the provisions of the McKinney-Vento Act that its supporters most enthusiastically embrace is a new requirement that every school district in the country appoint a liaison to serve as a central point of contact for dealing with homeless children. Even once-reluctant districts will now have to acknowledge these children's needs.

The bill also allots $50 million to strengthen resources for homeless children in schools.

But some wonder if the increased spending will be enough. Children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington.

Considerable progress has been made in keeping homeless children in school. When Congress first established a program for homeless children in 1987, reports indicated that only 50 percent were attending school regularly. By 1995, a national evaluation showed that the number had jumped to 86 percent.

But because the overall number of homeless people continues to grow, many who work with the children find insufficient comfort in the fact that more homeless children are enrolled in school. And some continue to worry that mainstream schools simply won't provide a soft enough landing spot for the children who find themselves in such a situation.

It may be easier for legislators who "sit in an ivory tower and don't come down and see what's really happening" to get excited about the abstract notion of equality implicit in mainstreaming, says Ms. Dowling, the Arizona superintendent.

"But when you touch [homelessness] and see it and hug it," she insists, "it's a very different experience."

• E-mailmarjorie@csmonitor.com

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