Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 12:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Poster Session II

Assessing the Strengths and Needs of Homeless Students, Families and the Schools that Serve Them: Implications for Multi-Level Intervention and Policy

Children in families experiencing homelessness face many barriers for healthy outcomes and academic success, including mental health issues and educational constraints. Homeless students are at an elevated risk for high school dropout, repeating a grade, poor achievement test scores, and school behavior problems (Israel, Urberg & Toro, 2001; Jozefowicz, 2002; Masten, Miliotis, Graham-Bermann, Ramirez, & Neemann, 1993; Ziesemer, Marcoux, & Marwell, 1994). In order to address the unique needs and risks associated with homelessness, federal policy has been crafted to address enrollment barriers and support the development of services to encourage educational success for homeless students. As a part of No Child Left Behind, the McKinney-Vento Act requires the removal of enrollment barriers, and the creation of comprehensive, integrated educational and human services in order to promote academic achievement amongst this group. The act also mandates that school districts have access to a local homeless liaison who focuses on advocacy and service delivery to this target population. School social workers are frequently serving as these liaisons due to the unique fit with the liaison’s role and the role of school social workers. However, in addition to risks and vulnerabilities, studies have also focused on the unique strengths and resiliency of homeless families and youth (Douglass, 1996). The present study was designed to assess the strengths and needs of homeless students, families, and the schools that serve them in order to begin to develop and evaluate a comprehensive system of school-based and school-linked services to address the needs of these students and families, as well as build upon their strengths.

In the present study, 50 mothers drawn from shelters serving families in a large in an urban, high poverty setting were interviewed. Trained interviewers assessed recent family moves, maternal psychological distress, reports of educational needs, maternal and child report of psychopathology, child strengths and struggles, competencies and challenges in schools, perception of the school system and its “fit” or responsiveness to their needs, perceptions of ways in which schools could be improved to help their children succeed academically and family service use through open-ended and closed-ended responses. Participants primarily identified as African American (90%). Children in the present study were between the ages of six and twelve years of age. Forty-six percent of the children in this sample scored in the clinical range (> the 98th percentile) across more than one subscale of the Achenbach Child Behavior Check List (CBCL). Twenty percent of the children received scores in the clinical range on four or more subscales. Themes in the open-ended questions revealed significant strengths and concerns about homeless children and the needs of homeless students and their parents, including the need for educational, practical, and other support services. Results are discussed in terms of an iterative process of needs assessment, research design, theory building, and service delivery. Implications for multi-level intervention, policy and further research are also discussed.

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