ARP-HCY Spotlights: Academic Support

Washington Court House City Schools (WCHCS) have had strong processes for identifying students experiencing homelessness over the years. However, as the district began to look at which students were identified, WCHCS realized that communication barriers greatly impacted the district’s ability to offer additional support and resources to families experiencing homelessness. Many of these families did not have access to technology, were not willing to share their circumstances or did not respond at all to efforts to offer help.

As a result, WCHCS decided to write a McKinney-Vento subgrant application, which ultimately wasn’t funded but led to receiving ARP-HCY Part I and Part II funds. With the awarding of these funds, the district began a mentorship program for their students experiencing homelessness. The goal was for the mentor to be the bridge between the district and families so resources and support could flow to students and families experiencing homelessness. In the beginning, certified staff were tapped to fill the role of mentors, but as the program has grown, all full-time staff are now able to participate after attending training.

Once a student is identified under McKinney-Vento, the WCHCS liaison/social worker reaches out to the parent or guardian, as well as staff in the building where the student attends. Upon parent approval, a mentor is then paired with the identified student, meeting with the student a minimum of twice per month for a minimum of 30 minutes. All mentor-mentee meetings occur during the school day in order to avoid additional burdens outside of school hours for these families. The mentors use their personal time for these meetings. In fact, many mentors choose to spend lunch with their mentee at least one time per week. Mentors are also required to be in contact with the parent or guardian at least one time per month. Mentors receive a stipend, funded by ARP-HCY, for taking on this role.

In order to track the program to show outcomes and success, the McKinney-Vento Coordinator uses Google sheets. One sheet is used to track the whole program, but individual spreadsheets are created for every family and are monitored by the McKinney-Vento liaison/social worker. Mentors use the Google sheet to log contacts with their mentee, including goals, attendance, and grades. In addition, mentors log all contact with the parent/guardian, tracking needs that the family has and referrals that are made by the McKinney-Vento liaison/social worker to community partners. If there is more than one student per family, all mentors have access to the sheet for the entire family so that mentors can collaborate with other mentors to support the whole family.

The mentorship program has led to a significant increase in the identification of students. In fact, the number of students experiencing homelessness that have been identified have increased from an average of 65 last year to over 100 this year. Because families now have stronger connections to school through the mentorship program, they are sharing with other families through word of mouth. This enables school staff to connect with other families who are experiencing homelessness and needing support. Because the district has strong community partnerships, the district is able to meet non-academic needs that families have that are often shared through the mentor-mentee relationships. In addition, the district has sought feedback from parents and students on the success of the program and 100% of families and students have expressed how much they love the mentorship program; families and staff have all expressed that it’s been rewarding and impactful.

In addition to the mentorship program, WCHCS is also using ARP-HCY funds to provide tutoring and wraparound services. From the data collected during the first year of the mentorship program, staff noticed a trend that many of the district’s students experiencing homelessness struggled with behavior concerns. With ARP-HCY funds, the district hired a McKinney-Vento Behavior Technician, who is trained by the district Prevention Coordinator. The district Prevention Coordinator, who is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), goes into classrooms, assesses what interventions the student would benefit from, and then the McKinney-Vento Behavior Technician implements the interventions with students experiencing homelessness. This has allowed WCHCS to better support students with behavior struggles due to the trauma they’ve experienced, as well as to model interactions and communication strategies.

As WCHCS plans for sustainability after ARP-HCY funds are no longer available, the district will apply for McKinney-Vento subgrant funds. In the event that subgrant funds are not awarded, mentors for the program will be on a volunteer basis. The Behavior Technician position will not be cut but will likely be absorbed by another position. The district hopes to gather enough data to make a case to continue to fund this position by other means.

“Our district is located in a rural city that is very generous and supportive of community members in need. Making connections between resources and families was a struggle previously due to not knowing what our families experiencing homelessness needed. The mentor program not only benefits individual students, but overall we are able to connect families to resources more efficiently. Thanks to these funds, we’ve been able to create a program so that families can feel connected and more open to sharing their needs. This has had a huge impact on our students, our school community and on identification.”

-Laura McNamara, Student Services Coordinator and McKinney-Vento Coordinator

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools decided to use their ARP-HCY Part I funds to prioritize youth empowerment and countywide mentoring. They hired formerly homeless youth as “Peer Support Associates” to meet with youth, educators, and community countywide. Peer Support Associates share their stories in order to empower youth to advocate for themselves and to encourage youth to not let their current circumstances define their future. They also inspire stakeholders to support and serve children and youth experiencing homelessness, and help educate teachers, school staff and community on the importance of one caring adult, building trust, and understanding homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act. The Peer Support Associate positions are funded for two years.

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools also braided ARP-HCY Part I funds with state and district funds to contract with school-based mentors who have lived experiences and relate to youth. Mentors support junior high, high schools and county community schools to provide once-a-month on-campus mentoring, inclusive of mental wellness, life skills, healthy relationships, academic support, and postsecondary planning support.

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools also received a smaller amount of ARP-HCY Part II funds, which were used for a county-wide back-to-school event in partnership with faith-based organizations, the district attorney, probation, local assembly member, and other community agencies. Through this collective impact event, over 11,000 backpacks with school supplies were distributed to three different regions of the county. San Bernardino County encompasses over 20,000 square miles of rural , urban, and suburban regions.

San Bernardino County will gather data to show the importance and impact of school-based mentoring, Peer Support Associates, and how one caring adult can make a difference in the lives of the students that we serve. Together with the anecdotal information from youth, San Bernardino County will show the need to implement and support programs like these in the future, in the hopes that educational systems will prioritize securing funding to continue empowering our youth.

“The funding is good, but temporary. What do we do after? It is important that we are intentional with these funds to maximize our efforts and resources to meet the needs of children and youth. In the end, our goal is to inspire all children and youth, and empower them to use their voice.”
-Brenda Dowdy, Homeless Education Project Manager

In the 2021-2022 school year, Columbus City Schools (CCS) identified 2,498 students experiencing homelessness, 582 of these students in grades 9-12. During this same school year, CCS used ARP-HCY funds to offer extended work hours for an in-house school counselor to conduct a transcript audit for all McKinney-Vento identified youth in grades 9-12. The audit reviewed how many credit hours students had in each area to determine if students were on-track toward advancing grade levels and toward graduation. The audit found that some students did not have the credit hours needed and/or may have been placed in courses that weren’t needed for their academic progress.

In the 2022-2023 school year, CCS expanded the model using braided funding from ARP-HCY and ESSER to hire two positions to advance this work. CCS is in the process of hiring an Academic Transitional Support Specialist, to do similar transcript audit work that the counselor did last year. This position will have a deep understanding of grades, transcripts and credit hours, and the Specialist will advocate with teachers and school-based counselors to support identified students to be appropriately placed in classes. The Specialist will focus on detailed transcript audits for 9-12th grade students, which will not only help juniors and seniors to remain on-track toward graduation, but also set 9th and 10th grade students up for success right from the beginning of their high school careers. Transcript audit information will be shared with staff so that they have student profiles and can advocate and support students with what they need.

With this combination of ARP-HCY and ESSER funding, a Business Project Manager was hired and is focusing on digging into the data to help identify service gaps and the team to determine what interventions might be needed. For example, this position will provide critical real-time data on transportation usage – giving administration the necessary information to make data-driven decisions on whether sending a bus or a private transportation service is effective to get students to school. This is important work since transportation affects attendance and attendance is predictive of academic outcomes. The position will also look at how students are matriculating from grade level to grade level. Using three major indicators – graduation rates, attendance, and identification – CCS can then look at what systems are already in place in the district, as well as what additional supports and structures will help move the needle on student outcomes.

Columbus City Schools will gather data throughout this work, with plans to show the data to the district as a means to fund the positions after ARP-HCY funding is no longer available.

“COVID wasn’t friendly to anyone, but it gave me the dollars to do this work – to shift our focus from basic needs to the spirit of the law which is academic. It’s not enough to provide school supplies and transportation if students aren’t matriculating to the next grade and graduating.”
-Felisha Lyons, Executive Director of Student Services

Washington Court House City Schools, Ohio

San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, California

Columbus City Schools, Ohio

Durham Public Schools, North Carolina

School District of Janesville, Wisconsin