The Invisible Student

There are those who, despite extremely challenging circumstances, succeed. They make the honor roll and earn college scholarships. But they are the exception rather than the rule. On average, homeless and highly mobile students have poorer attendance records and significantly lower test scores than the general student body. They perform below grade-level expectations. It’s not hard to see how they can easily be condemned to a life of poverty—indeed, 23 percent of homeless adults surveyed by Wilder Research said their first experience of homelessness was as a child—unless the school can intervene.

In Minneapolis, Elizabeth Hinz trains anyone who comes into contact with students—from principals to psychologists to teachers to lunchroom workers—about the special needs homeless and highly mobile children have. She encourages creative and individual teaching strategies. “The teachers are very likely the only ones in that child’s life providing the basic learning pieces,” she says. “The kids may be getting a lot of emotional nurturing from others, but those others may not have the skills to get them into introductory algebra, and that’s where they need to go. Education is the key for these kids to have a more hopeful future. Addressing the needs of homeless children is critical in terms of long-term prevention as well as being morally right.”

Minneapolis receives nearly $900,000 in federal and state funds to address the needs of its homeless and highly mobile students. That pays for Margo Hurrle’s position and two other staff workers in her shelter office. It also covers screening for preschool kids, support teams in all high schools, some school supplies, a district attendance initiative, and a pilot project at twelve elementary schools to develop a model of social work practice to support students.

But money alone won’t save these kids. The desire demonstrated by Hinz and her St. Paul counterpart Becky Hicks needs to be more widespread. “We talk about the problem of homeless kids, but the community doesn’t get behind the effort of saying we’re not going to tolerate this,” says Carol Markham–Cousins, Washburn’s principal. “It isn’t just about funds—though those are very important—it’s also about will and focus.”

She believes “we can service these kids really well”—if the community will only put its heart where the money is.

Markham–Cousins has good reason to worry about Ambrose. Kids on their own are at higher risk to have serious problems. They are five times more likely than kids from stable homes to be treated for alcohol or drug problems, four times more likely to have been physically abused, four times more likely to have been sexually abused if they are a girl, twice as likely if they’re a boy. The boys are twice as likely as kids in the general population to have tried to kill themselves. Fourteen percent of all young people in the Wilder survey had traded sex for shelter, food, or clothing. The girls are seventeen times more likely to have been pregnant.