Homeless Students Strain School Budgets

The effects of the nation's foreclosures, unemployment, and all-around sour economy are trickling way, way down. Schools from Maine to California are feeling the effects of the surge in homeless students, struggling to keep up with related administrative and transportation costs.

A federal mandate (included in the McKinney Vento Homeless Act) requires that schools provide transportation, meals, and other necessities (like uniforms and supplies) to homeless students. The law was passed to help ensure stability and continuity in schooling for students who have been uprooted by homelessness to keep them from falling behind.

For example, if a family is forced out of their apartment and into a homeless shelter in a different school district, tranportation must be provided for the homeless child to and from the school of origin. For many homeless youngsters, this is the only familiarity that remains from their life prior to becoming homeless.

While many school districts are perfectly eager to see these students succced and have no oppositions to the federal mandate, their budgets are straining to accomodate the recent surge in homeless students.

Brockton, Massachusetts, for example, has seen a 50 percent increase in homeless students since last year. Each day, the school district must transport at least 150 students from shelters, motels, and other living arrangements. Many students must be transported from towns beyond the city's limits. According to the Enterprise, transportation for just one student can cost up to $200 per day.

“The biggest challenge about providing transportation for homeless students is that it’s an expense you can’t prepare for,” said Katie Shea, Brockton schools’ Title 1 coordinator, who oversees transportation for homeless students.

Last year, Brockton spent $70,000 to transport homeless students. That was just half of the $150,000 [in federal grant money] that was spent two years earlier. Up-to-date costs for this year were not available. The money is coming from the transportation budget.

"We’re budgeting for next year now and we can’t estimate what we will need because the numbers change daily,” Shea said. “These are families in crisis, who are often moving at a moment’s notice and being placed in cities and towns where they don’t know anyone and can’t find the basic services they need.”

There is no question that the benefits of keeping homeless students enrolled in school far outweight the costs of doing so. But- once again- we are asking already struggling schools to shoulder the burden of this increasingly pricey federal mandate. Until a moratorium is placed on foreclosures or appropriate measures are taken to curb the increasing number of homeless families, school districts will continue to struggle. If you ask me, that just isn't right.