The Invisible Student

There’s no one single reason for this increase, but the lack of affordable housing and shortage of jobs with decent wages factor heavily in the growing number of homeless families. In the 1990s, the last period with data available from Wilder Research, average rents in the Twin Cities increased 34 percent while median household income for renters went up only 9 percent. Yet kids wind up on their own for reasons other than those that determine the fates of adults.

The main reason kids twenty and younger cite for leaving home are fighting with parents, someone in the home they couldn’t stand to be around, being kicked out, and not being willing to live by their parents’ rules. Seventy percent believed they would be allowed to return home, but less than half (49 percent) thought there was a chance they would live with their family again, according to Wilder Research in 2006. “Kids don’t run away from happy homes,” says Becky Hicks, St. Paul public schools’ homeless liaison. “They leave for a reason.”

On any given night in Minnesota, Wilder estimates that between 550 and 650 kids ages seventeen and younger are on their own, like Ambrose, without an adult and without a place of their own. Some of those kids came from elsewhere, but 86 percent of them grew up in Minnesota. “These kids are our kids,” says Elizabeth Hinz, the Minneapolis district liaison for homeless and highly mobile students. “They aren’t somebody else’s kids.”

The McKinney–Vento legislation places two primary demands on school districts: They must enroll students within forty-eight hours, and they must allow them to stay in the school where they began the school year. A large part of Margo Hurrle’s job is spent tending to the first requirement.

With an office in People Serving People, which has a capacity for 350 people a night and is one of Minneapolis’s largest shelters, Hurrle canvasses the city’s homeless, domestic-violence and youth shelters along with church shelters and motels to find school-age children. She registers them if they aren’t already enrolled in a school, arranges transportation, and provides school supplies. Hurrle monitors the students’ performance and advocates for them, whether that’s intervening with a delinquent cab driver or paying for school pictures. “Whatever needs to happen, we try to make sure that happens so these kids don’t miss out,” she says.

School districts spend big money on the second requirement, reimbursed in part by the state. When kids move around—even out of the district—the district where they began the school year is responsible for providing transportation to the original school. That cost Minneapolis about $1.5 million last year; while St. Paul spent approximately $500,000. Hinz figures the expense is worth it. “The school community may be the single most stable and comforting location and group of people that these children know,” she says.

Not having a permanent address makes learning especially difficult. Homeless and highly mobile students grades K–12 miss school more often than other students. When they are in class, they are often preoccupied by stress and anxiety—or simply exhausted—which makes it difficult to focus or follow instructions. They may lack a family role model who values education and often don’t have someone available to go over multiplication tables or help them memorize a poem. They often lack the space to do homework and the materials required for projects. No surprise: They develop gaps in their education.

The challenges mount as kids advance to middle and high school. The gaps may seem insurmountable. The homework becomes more complex, the materials for science projects and displays harder to obtain. They may not have time for homework because they are caring for younger siblings. Lacking the proper shoes or shorts to participate in gym class, they are likely to feel ostracized and stigmatized. At an age when the desire to fit in is particularly strong, they don’t. “The older they get, the more anxious kids are about preserving the anonymity of their situation,” Hinz says. “That can cause kids to drop out.”