The clock is ticking on a proposed Pennsylvania legislation mandating that faculty districts defend the federally assured rights of homeless college students.
The invoice gained traction final yr after a Middle for Public Integrity investigation revealed that districts within the state locked college students out of college for weeks or months whereas investigating their households’ claims of homelessness.
The laws, presently into account within the Republican-controlled state Senate, would reverse a state legislation that permits colleges to bar from class any college students, together with homeless youngsters, throughout residency disputes.
Pennsylvania’s present practices are at odds with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Help Act. That federal legislation requires that faculty districts instantly enroll college students experiencing housing insecurity — earlier than, relatively than after, a residency investigation — and supply them with varied help providers.
The state Home unanimously handed the invoice in November; the state Senate Training Committee did the identical in March.
Earlier than the laws can head to the total Senate for consideration, the state Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Republican Sen. Scott Martin, should approve it. The legislative session ends in late November, giving lawmakers about six months to vote.
In an announcement supplied to Public Integrity, Martin’s spokesman, Jason Thompson, wrote: “As a former chair of the Senate Training Committee, and as somebody who labored with households experiencing homelessness throughout his years working within the juvenile justice system, Senator Martin understands and appreciates the significance of guaranteeing continuity of schooling, particularly for younger folks rising up in troublesome circumstances.”
Reporting on pupil homelessness by Public Integrity and accomplice information organizations throughout the previous 18 months has revealed deep-rooted issues, from funding disparities to uneven pupil self-discipline.
The tales have make clear the plight of homeless college students and sparked modifications in insurance policies and practices.
In December 2022, Congress elevated funding for homeless college students by 13%, a transfer that got here after a years-long push by advocates and a Public Integrity investigation the earlier month in partnership with The Seattle Instances, Road Sense Media and WAMU/DCist. However that’s tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} beneath the extent many members of Congress thought was mandatory.
Earlier than the funds vote, Democratic and Republican members of Congress instructed Public Integrity that the federal authorities should do extra to make sure constant help for homeless college students, among the many most susceptible youngsters served by public colleges.
In Washington state, lawmakers almost doubled Homeless Pupil Stability Program funding to $9 million in 2023.
That adopted reporting by Public Integrity and accomplice The Seattle Instances concerning the scarce funding to assist these college students. With the rise, this system boosted funding for 17 districts and supplied monetary help to a different 30-plus.
Investigations within the collection additionally revealed that college students experiencing housing instability face self-discipline in colleges at charges larger than their housed friends.
In California, almost 6% of homeless college students have been suspended in comparison with roughly 3% of all different college students, a Public Integrity evaluation confirmed.
In Washington state, college students experiencing homelessness have been suspended and expelled at nearly thrice the speed of their housed friends, The Seattle Instances reported in a 2022 article. Research in 5 different states have discovered related outcomes.
‘Deep-seated issues’
A Public Integrity evaluation of federal schooling knowledge suggests tons of of hundreds of youngsters entitled to rights reserved for homeless college students go unidentified by the college districts mandated to assist them. Identification is the important first step to offering that help.
The evaluation discovered that 2,400 districts didn’t report having any homeless college students regardless of ranges of monetary want that make these figures inconceivable.
And plenty of extra districts are probably undercounting the variety of homeless college students they do establish. In almost half of states, tallies of pupil homelessness bear no relationship with poverty, an indication of simply how inconsistent the identification of children with unstable housing may be.
“You actually dove into how there’s profound under-reporting for McKinney-Vento-eligible college students,” mentioned Paige Joki, an lawyer with the Pennsylvania-based Training Legislation Middle.
“What that leads to is of us stating that there aren’t issues when, in actuality, there are actually deep-seated issues which might be under-explored. … College students are actually paying the value for that.”
Unhoused and Undercounted
Federal legislation requires that public colleges help homeless college students to assist break what may turn out to be an inescapable cycle of hardship. However lots of the college students who want that assist fall by the cracks.
In almost each state, homeless college students graduate at a lot decrease charges. And dropping out of highschool will increase their danger of housing instability later in life.
Whereas federal legislation urges colleges to help homeless college students, some districts in Pennsylvania and different states, comparable to Maryland and Missouri, suspect residency fraud and launch investigations when households say they don’t have a everlasting residence, tales by Public Integrity and reporting companions The Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio revealed.
The circumstances usually contain college students who say they’re “doubled up” — the federal time period for sharing a house with pals or family members due to financial hardship or lack of housing. These youngsters are thought-about homeless beneath McKinney-Vento.
The legislation mandates that colleges help them by eradicating obstacles to these college students’ schooling, arranging transportation to highschool, waiving sometimes required paperwork and referring households to well being care and housing providers.
Public Integrity’s evaluate of dispute data and inner emails from the Pennsylvania Division of Training, carried out as a part of our investigation, suggests the drawback is prevalent in suburban Philadelphia colleges, the place many conflicts occurred. These disputes usually end in extended pupil absences, inflicting vital disruptions to their schooling.
Democratic State Rep. Jeanne McNeill, the sponsor of Pennsylvania Home Invoice 663, launched the laws after a college system within the southeastern Pennsylvania space she represents barred a pupil from attending class and receiving particular schooling providers throughout a residency dispute.
The Training Legislation Middle, which represents households in such disputes, advocated for the invoice throughout a state listening to on pupil homelessness final yr.
“These disputes may be fairly prolonged, and that leads to college students being denied the instruction time that they’re legally entitled to,” Joki mentioned in an interview with Public Integrity. “Training is a elementary proper in Pennsylvania, and this invoice is a mandatory step to make sure college students aren’t being disadvantaged of this proper.”
