Federal changes in policies regarding students who are homeless have made their way to the local school district.
Dawn Berhorst, Jefferson City Public Schools director of assessment and planning, said changes made in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)were adopted by the Missouri School Boards Association and in turn adopted by the JCPS Board of Education this month.
"The biggest change is in transportation," Berhorst said.
ESSA is the latest re-authorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Under the previous version, if a student who is homeless was being provided transportation to his or her school of origin, but his or her family found permanent housing during the school year, "we were no longer required to transport (that student)," she said.
School of origin refers to the school a student attended when the family had permanent housing or the school in which a student was last enrolled. The school of origin could be across attendance boundary lines or even in another school district entirely; Berhorst said the former is the more common situation for JCPS.
Students who are homeless are preferred to keep attending their school of origin to maintain stability for their academic careers and access to resources.
With the policy change, Berhorst said, the district's responsibility to provide transportation remains until the end of a school year, regardless of whether a student's family finds permanent housing during the school year.
She said this policy change and others are about a "greater focus on removing barriers for students" who are experiencing homelessness. "Anything we can do to help them" is something the district supports, she added.
The district can reimburse parents or guardians of homeless students for mileage if they transport their children to their school of origin on their own. "The last thing we want is to put a burden on those folks financially," Berhorst said.
She reported JCPS has had 106 students identified as homeless in the current school year, and the number of homeless students in the district has been declining slightly over the past few years.
Under the law, the definition of "homeless" is about more than having to live in places like cars, parks, abandoned buildings, or bus or train stations. The federal definition is about whether a living situation for a student is fixed, regular and adequate, Berhorst said.
Children who have to share housing with another family due to the loss of their own living space or other economic hardships is not a fixed situation because they might be forced to leave at any time. Families who have no other adequate option than to live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds, and emergency or transitional shelters also are not considered in fixed or regular living arrangements.
Adequate refers to the primary nighttime residence of a student and whether it's designated as normally being used as a place for people to sleep.
Other policy changes that involve promptly identifying students who are homeless, providing notice of resources available, and providing access to those resources, like educational, health and housing services, don't affect JCPS much because the district is already doing those things, Berhorst said.
Though the district itself doesn't have "a huge spectrum of services" available in-house, students' needs are evaluated, she said. And the district's social workers communicate frequently with community resource-providers like HALO and the Community Homeless Task Force, along with agencies within their own professional networks.
She added students who are homeless are automatically eligible for free and reduced-price meals, and there is some Title 1 money in the district's budget to provide needed items like school supplies or coats - "basics to get started."
She said some principals also might ask business partners for assistance with field trip costs for students who are homeless. Activities like field trips aren't necessarily as vital as school supplies and coats, but they are important experiences that help children feel they are part of the school community.
"We try to do what we can to get them to stay actively involved in school and attending school," she said.