Chronic absenteeism rates among homeless students are alarmingly high.
The number of students who are regularly absent from school has increased since the pandemic, but it’s especially acute for homeless students. Even though federal law Require states to provide public education For homeless students, this has proven difficult to achieve. And keeping homeless students in school is a difficult goal for many school districts.
School leaders in San Diego (home to one of the largest homeless populations in the country) think they have an answer. Monarch Schools are public and private K-12 schools established through an agreement between the San Diego County Department of Education and local nonprofit organizations. There are approximately 300 students enrolled, all of whom have experienced homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless.
School leaders argue that simply exposing students to homelessness can create a sense of community and remove the stigma of not having a reliable place to call home. Schools can also focus on providing socially and emotionally tailored learning.
So why do critics say the very idea of schools for the homeless is “problematic”?
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the McKinney-Bento Act, a federal law that oversees education for the homeless; Ban homeless schools as a form of “isolation.”
Monarch School benefits from an exception. The only publicly funded independent school for homeless students. Some of those positions include powerful senators, including California’s longest-serving senator, Dianne Feinstein, who died in late September. supported the school.
Monarch School relies on a community approach to education and social services, emphasizing on-site family programs and resources. For example: This school has on-campus showers, a food pantry, qualified clinicians, and social programs. We encourage entire families to take advantage of free housing and health benefits through our Parent Resource Center. Marisol Alvarado, Monarch School’s vice president of programs, said when parents, students and families are going through trauma, having everyone together in the same building can be extremely helpful.
If you ask any school leader, that’s something different.
Most students are referred to Monarch School through social workers at other institutions, which the school credits to the social programs it offers.
“The focus of our work is to provide a safe, socially nurturing place for unresidential students to succeed academically,” said Monarch Schools CEO Afira DeVries. It means building independent communities. That’s because it’s difficult for students without homes to be themselves in the mainstream American school system, she says. “It’s a bright, beautiful, colorful, fun place,” DeVries added.
Monarch School’s CEO said in a call with EdSurge that social-emotional learning is a priority for the school. DeVries said students attending the school will be sent home to shelters, motels or even by car. She added that while the academic part of studying is important, interventions are needed to stabilize students so they can learn first. If Monarch School can build students’ mental resilience, it will prepare them for academic careers, DeVries said.
she also research study A study conducted by the school in collaboration with the Jacobs Institute for Educational Innovation at the University of San Diego reported an increase in students’ sense of belonging and self-esteem. However, the study did not track academic performance or chronic absenteeism rates.
So does the model work? Is it a good idea to create more schools for students experiencing homelessness?
Monarch School claims to provide a quality education. DeVries estimates the moving average graduation rate for the school’s senior class to be 93%. Last year, the entire senior class graduated, she added. But the students there may not be following the typical path. According to the school’s leaders, their dream is for the students to recover from the trauma of homelessness and break away from society by the fourth grade. DeVries said the goal is to get students stable enough to return to traditional schools.
Meanwhile, critics claim that the school’s academic performance is actually “terrible” compared to homeless students studying in traditional public schools.a 2020 Federal Report Monarch School students were found to have lower proficiency in reading and math, especially in elementary school, compared to public schools in the San Diego area.
But the opposition is much broader.
Some people are convinced that schools specifically for the homeless are a bad idea. Among them is Barbara Duffield, executive director of Schoolhouse Connection, a nonprofit focused on education advocacy for the homeless. Mr. Duffield is an advocate with a long history of working on federal policy for homeless education.
Duffield argues that schools for homeless students disrupt education by removing students from the regular school system. When Congress banned segregated schools, she says, it recognized that homeless students would do better academically if they were integrated into the mainstream school environment rather than isolated from their peers. One reason for this is that separate schools cannot provide the same educational opportunities. As an integrated school, and because separate schools would result in homeless children changing schools depending on their housing situation.
In general, the idea of schools separating homeless students from regular public schools is that they are unable to provide many support services, such as access to free meals, and lack social clubs, student organizations, and other extracurricular activities. It is said that it causes anxiety. A memo sent to EdSurge from Duffield’s organization regarding schools specifically for the homeless.
Schools for homeless students may have good intentions, but they end up fostering low expectations and perpetuating pity and prejudice rather than opportunity, Duffield said.
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What about getting students to attend class? Can schools for homeless students differentiate themselves there?
The school says yes. The company self-reported a daily attendance rate of 83 percent in October, the latest figure available. But more than that, Monarch School leaders say they are taking in San Diego students who have left the public education system and helping them get back into the classroom. That’s why many students are seen returning to school after cycling through homelessness, Alvarado said.
But critics say this argument is self-serving, and a 2020 federal report states that Monarch Schools Chronic absenteeism rate is higher than average, in the 2018-2019 school year, it was 58.8 percent (compared to California’s overall chronic absenteeism rate of 25 percent for homeless students). Monarch Schools was unable to provide current estimates of chronic absenteeism in time.
Critics also do not accept the stigma argument.
Duffield argues that there are many ways to address this stigma without creating separate schools for homeless students. In her view, the important thing is to show students that homelessness is just something they experience. It does not define them or their potential. That’s what they’re experiencing, Duffield says, and school, like their peers, can be a source of normalcy, stability and support. She added that if a student were to be truly stigmatized, they would have to attend another school with a record.
For advocates like Duffield, addressing chronic absenteeism is tantamount to addressing the problems students have accessing the basics of life. It’s transportation, access to supplies, and the presence of people who follow them and notice what’s going on in their lives.
What do Monarch School leaders think?
When asked why other school districts haven’t followed suit, DeVries said it’s all about money. Students coming to Monarch School mean a loss of revenue for the school, and changing the traditional school model is expensive, she said.
“There’s a tendency to think that by putting the spotlight on them, we’re creating more confusion,” DeVries said. “Our take on it is that when you come to a place like Monarch School, all of our children are facing the same suffering. So there’s no more stigmatization,” he added. “My children don’t have to hide here,” he added.