(Published Saturday, February 24, 2007 10:09:14 PM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Anna Marie Lux Gazette staff
How does the Janesville School District define homeless?
School officials use the definition in the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which protects the educational rights of homeless children and youths.
Marge Hallenbeck, coordinator of student services and homeless student liaison, says homeless students are individuals who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.
Students are homeless if they are:
-- Temporarily sharing the housing of other people due to loss of housing, economic hardship or similar reasons.
-- Living in motels, hotels or campgrounds due to lack of alternative housing.
-- Living in emergency shelters.
-- Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations or similar settings.
-- Not living with a parent or guardian.
-- Awaiting foster care placement.
"We have to know the child to know if he or she qualifies as homeless," school social worker Ann Forbeck explains. "Sometimes families live doubled up, and it is not a crisis but a cultural preference. It is a case-by-case situation."
Homeless students may choose to stay at the school they attended when they had a home, even though they now may be outside the school's attendance area. The school district is required to provide transportation.
This gives homeless students some academic stability when everything else in their lives is in chaos, Forbeck says.
In spring 2006, most of the district's homeless students were doubled-up with relatives or friends.
Another 48 were in shelters and transitional living programs.
More than 30 were living in inadequate housing, including campgrounds, cars, abandoned buildings or trailer homes without plumbing, electricity or windows.
Fifteen were in motels or hotels.
Fifteen were "couch surfing" from one friend's home to another.
Another dozen were runaway youth and others not in the physical custody of a parent.
