Education Week - January 6, 2021 - 18

of having children taken by social services keeps
many families from coming forward.
Lisa Mentesana, the program specialist overseeing homeless and foster care youth for the Beaverton district in Oregon, said she works with a mother
who has two children and pays $600 a month to live
in a backyard shed. A single extension cord powers a
lamp, slow cooker and a heater. Water comes from
a garden hose. The family uses a bucket as a toilet.
" That's in Nike's backyard. In your average
American neighborhood and home, " Mentesana
said, referring to the athletic apparel giant whose
headquarters are nearby. " No one living in situations like that is willing to tell anyone about it. "
In the face of such turmoil, school staff and community organizations want families to see them as
a source of stability. Kuykendall's calm and steady
presence-in addition to working with Crittenton,
she is a doula and a yoga teacher-has been very
important to Trenita Collins Miller-Aganyemi and
her 14-year-old daughter, Ayoka Miller-Aganyemi.
Ayoka, an 8th grader in the District of Columbia
school system, said she's had to deal with computer
problems and problems with the internet, particu-

Finding and Helping Vulnerable Youth
The children and youth who have stopped attending school regularly since
March were often facing challenges before the coronavirus pandemic.
SchoolHouse Connection, which advocates for homeless youth, has
compiled tips for helping hard-to-reach students.

INTERVENTIONS schools can consider:

* Visit local motels and

campgrounds where families
experiencing homelessness sometimes
stay, placing ﬂyers on vehicle windows or
under doors.

* Create user-friendly websites
and Facebook pages with clear

information about community resources,
food distribution, and distance
learning.

* Set up a phone hotline for
assistance with any needs.

* When delivering food or learning

packets, ask about other needs,
encourage families and students to keep
in touch, and let them know they are
missed.

* Provide parents and youth with

the technology they need to stay in
touch, such as pre-paid cell phones.

* Use all available means of

communication to reach families
and students, such as email, phone,
texting, regular mail, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Snapchat, and " curbside "
home visits.

* When families and students don't

respond, don't give up-reach out to
emergency contacts and other students
to help.

* Reach out to unaccompanied

youth directly, because most
unaccompanied youth have no contact
with parents or guardians.

* Once you connect with a parent or

youth, stay in touch on a regular
schedule using " check-in " forms to
guide your conversations.
SOURCE: SchoolHouse Connection

18 | EDUCATION WEEK | January 6, 2021 | www.edweek.org

larly when the weather is bad.
" It's stressful. I have to worry about my other
siblings, even my mom. It's a struggle, " she said.
But Crittenton " has been helping me. I can express
myself with them and they can help me, and I can
help them, " she said.
The emotional support has been a huge help, her
mother said. " If it wasn't for Crittenton there's no
telling if we'd be here today. "

Maintaining Connections
YouthBuild USA, which works with 16- to
24-year-olds who have dropped out of high school,
is strengthening its partnership with Penn Foster,
which offers high school diploma and certificate
programs through distance learning. As the pandemic wears on, older students may be looking for
the job and academic training YouthBuild offers,
said Michael Brotchner, the organization's chief
strategy officer. It's a recognition that some students may not return to traditional public school,
but they can still achieve their academic goals.
In Beaverton, Mentesana said that a new community resource center serving her district is coming in 2021. That will serve as a one-stop shop to
support families and students, who often have a
variety of social and academic needs.
" We're really excited about that and we hope that
it will help to expand services, prevent displacement, and just help us navigate through this period
of time, " she said.
Christy McCoy, a school social worker for the
St. Paul, Minn., district, said she has been able to
maintain contact with students through online, affinity-based support groups, such as those focused
on Latino or African-American students. Now that
districts have more access to personal protective
equipment to avoid contracting the virus, she's also
added in home visits.
Another important piece of her job is referring
children and families to mental health services.
" Kids who might have had the resilience early on
are getting worn down, " McCoy said. " And those kids
who were struggling with mental health issues at the
start of the pandemic, that has just intensified. "
She's also found that texting can be a more effective mode of communication with students than
phone calls. " I have a significant group of students,
who, every morning, I send them a text: 'This is your
friendly reminder of what your plan is for today.'
We've seen more engagement and they're showing
up for their synchronous classes, " McCoy said.
For these students facing the deepest challenges,
entire communities across the nation are going to
have to come together to help them get through this
trauma, said Siobhan Davenport, the executive director of Crittenton Services of Greater Washington.
" We just have not seen this level of hardship with our
families. But we're here for (them), " she said. " I feel
like our foot is on the gas, and we can't take it off. " Q

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Education Week - January 6, 2021

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