Green Bay, WI: Number of homeless students on
the rise
Green Bay district strives to provide stable environment
The Green Bay Press-Gazette
By Cynthia Hodnett
chodnett@greenbaypressgazette.com
Originally published July 5, 2005
A student’s family can’t afford to pay his fees
to enroll in a woodshop class or to replace his worn-out,
tattered tennis shoes.
Another student and his family move from house to house
because they can’t find affordable housing. In turn, the
student misses a lot of school and falls behind academically.
These are the children whose lives are turned upside down by
poverty and homelessness. Their basic physical needs often go
unmet, making it harder for them to achieve in school.
About 590 children in the Green Bay School District were
identified as homeless this past academic year compared with
333 the year before, said Alison Draheim, a social worker
with the district’s Homeless Program.
“Most of these kids have been in our district for years,
it’s just their situation has become desperate,”
Draheim said. “It’s a nationwide problem, not just
in Green Bay. The working poor are struggling with trying to
make ends meet.”
Homeless numbers grow
Despite receiving money from the federal government, district
and community donations, the program is struggling to keep
pace with the increasing level of poverty in the area.
At least 20 percent of minority children in Brown County
lived below the poverty line, compared with 5 percent of
white children, according to the 2004 State of Brown
County’s Children report released in February.
A handful of Green Bay schools have poverty rates above 80
percent, according to district figures.
If referrals to the district’s program are any
indication, the number of students in the district who are
homeless is growing and showing no signs of slowing down.
“I’m already getting calls from parents saying,
‘OK, we lost our house,’” Draheim said.
“This morning, I’ve already gotten calls about
three kids who are homeless now and will be homeless in
August, and we need to figure out their transportation to
school.”
Homeless Program
The district’s Homeless Program addresses issues related
to the No Child Left Behind Act, which, in part, calls for
states to improve academic achievement for all students and
to eliminate achievement gaps between racial, ethnic and
income groups.
The Homeless Program was also spurred by the passing of the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Act, which requires all school
districts nationwide to provide homeless children with equal
access to education.
Several school districts in Wisconsin, including Green Bay,
have received grant money from the federal government to
provide resources to homeless students, including
transportation to and from school and school supplies.
The Green Bay district is in the last year of a three-year
grant. Last year, it received about $59,000 that was
earmarked mostly for school supplies and transportation,
Draheim said.
The district also works with other agencies, such as the
Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Society, for other
basic needs such as hygiene products, clothing and shoes.
The district verifies that the children are attending school
in order for them to receive help.
Families never receive cash donations and whatever needs to
be purchased is done by a social worker in the program,
Draheim said.
While it tries to address the needs of all homeless children,
the program has only so many resources to go around.
“We try to do what we can, but sometimes we have to tell
them that there’s nothing we can do,” Draheim said.
“A lot of community agencies have had their funding cut.
The YWCA did day care for teenage moms, but that funding had
been cut. When we have teenage moms, I don’t know how
we’re going to help them.”
“Some of those children who come here, I think because
of the environment they are in, are really excelling,”
said Gary LaFave, president and executive director of Freedom
House. “Some are really bright kids, great
artists.”
Because of their abnormal living situation, school becomes
part of a normal part of their lives, LaFave said.
“They are with their friends, their teachers.
That’s why the McKinney grant is so important and
valuable and why it’s there, to give some stability in
these young people’s lives when there’s so much
instability in their outside of school life,” he said
Academic differences
On average, children from low-income homes don’t do as
well academically as students from families with higher
incomes.
For example, children from low-income homes are less likely
to reach proficiency on standardized tests. In Wisconsin, the
gap in 2004 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exams scores for
reading ranges from 20 to 25 percentage points, depending on
the grade level.
For many families, finding a place to live, clothes to wear
and food to eat become higher priorities than making sure
their children attend school, said Rebecca Lesperance,
director of emergency services of the Green Bay Salvation
Army. Many miss weeks, sometimes months, of school and lose
books or important school forms.
Teachers must be willing to learn about the hardships these
students live with every day, Draheim said.
“You can give them a backpack full of supplies, get them
started in the class, then two nights later, mom may have to
move, and they may not have their stuff when they have to
come back to school,” Draheim said. “It’s a
struggle for some people to understand that.”
Parental involvement is also a key component to
children’s success in school. But children who are
homeless and living in poverty aren’t always getting
that support, for many reasons. With guidance from their
families and teachers, many of these students can and do
succeed, she said.
Much of that support can also come from principals, teachers
and other staff, many of whom are trained to encourage
children and make them feel more comfortable in the
classroom.
“What’s better than when everything in your life is
going to pot to come to school and to see your teacher who
says, ‘Good morning. I’m happy to see you.
You’re going to learn so much today. Did you get your
breakfast? Let’s go get your breakfast,’”
Draheim said. “We need schools to be that positive place
for these kids to feel safe and get that attention.”