Jill Merolla is a Supervisor of Community Outreach and Grant Development and Homeless Liaison for the Warren City Schools, in a small, high poverty urban setting in northeastern Ohio. She’s worked in the district for 34 years supervising the school counselors and school community liaisons, providing professional development (including educating school staff on trauma-informed and empathetic approaches), identifying students experiencing homelessness, and ensuring all students and families — especially those in challenging circumstances — have access to community resources and have comprehensive support to thrive.

Jill knows first-hand the importance of McKinney-Vento protections and the right to an education for the lives of students experiencing homelessness. She’s seen how homelessness can disrupt a students’ ability to succeed in school — especially in the pandemic, when so many of her students could no longer attend or engage in school virtually. In her Q&A, Jill speaks about how important it is for children, youth, and families to receive multi-system support from liaisons who know them. She also dives into the critical importance of federal funds and how to equitably distribute them to the highest needs.

Christina Ramos is a Professional Social Services Liaison for Homeless and Unaccompanied Youth at Conroe Independent School District in Montgomery County, Texas — a role created by the McKinney-Vento Act, a United States federal law providing rights and services to children and youth experiencing homelessness. She identifies homeless and unaccompanied youth, engages in community outreach with agencies and organizations providing awareness and education, advocates for her students and families, and teaches them how to advocate for themselves.

In our Q&A with Christina, she spoke to the devastating long-term impact she sees homelessness have on the mental health and academic success of the youth and families she works with — trauma that has only compounded amid the pandemic. She describes the profound and disheartening difficulty she faces in connecting child, youth, and families experiencing homelessness to services and support they are entitled to, particularly because of misalignment in federal policy. This difficulty of access to resources is due to a number of barriers she speaks to, one such being the unaligned definitions of homelessness used by public schools and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs.

In this essay, SchoolHouse Connection Youth Scholar Jahnee S. bravely speaks to the impact her experiences of homelessness throughout her youth have had on her mental health.. But like so many youth who experience homelessness, Jahnee found resilience at school, where she was provided the academic, mental, and emotional support to cope, learn, and succeed long-term. Jahnee’s story reminds us that we must prioritize solutions for child, youth, and family homelessness crisis, centered on the one home all children and youth have in common: school.

Eric P.* is 19 years old, based in Texas, navigating his senior year of high school amid a pandemic — and as if that isn’t challenging enough, he is also an Unaccompanied Homeless Youth staying with a friend for the time being. Eric has experienced various forms of homelessness since he was 5 years old, and in his Q&A, speaks to the devastating impact his experiences of homelessness have had on his mental health and the support he wishes he and other homeless youth had. Eric plans to attend a community college after graduation, and then transfer to a four-year university — a path he says is only possible because of the support of his school and educators throughout his life.

*For privacy, we are keeping Eric’s last name anonymous.

The American Rescue Plan Act, enacted in March 2021, provided $800 million in funding specifically dedicated to support the identification, enrollment, and school participation of children and youth experiencing homelessness, including through wrap-around services. These funds, known as American Rescue Plan — Homeless Children and Youth Funds (ARP-HCY). This funding has already made a tremendous, positive impact on students experiencing homelessness; however, this program requires permanent funding. We recently spoke with Tyler Shoesmith, the Senior Director of Student Leadership and Well-Being at North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. In our Q&A, he highlights the need for increased and sustained American Rescue Plan — Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) funding in his district for personnel to support the mental health of his students experiencing homelessness, as well as technology to increase attendance, connect with families, lower mobility, and increase access to housing and service navigators. Tyler knows firsthand that increased and sustained investment in Education for Homeless Children and Youth funding is an essential component of any meaningful effort to achieve educational equity and to ensure today’s homeless children and youth do not become tomorrow’s homeless adults.