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Online schools reach homeless children Program to involve 30 of Allegheny County's 3,000 eligible students this school year Sunday, October 28, 2001 By Carmen J. Lee, Post-Gazette Education Writer
In a small, white frame house on a quiet residential street in McKeesport, a group of youngsters is participating in an experiment that could improve the future of education for homeless children.
These are the children of battered women who live in the Womansplace shelter, whose precise location is kept secret to protect the families from their abusers. Because their residence is temporary and enrolling in a school could be problematic, the children are learning on computers through a regional "cyber" school.
The PA Learners Online Regional Cyber Charter School, created by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, and others have been criticized recently as unmonitored and too expensive for local school districts. They're even the subject of lawsuits by school boards who say they were blindsided by hefty tuition bills from the charter schools.
But for its students who are homeless, supporters say, the online school is a better choice than regular schools.
By the end of the school year, about 30 of Allegheny County's 3,000 homeless students will be taught through the cyber school at Womansplace and a planned site at a Strip District homeless shelter.
"From a social standpoint, it's good for the kids because some of them come here without the up-to-date clothes or school supplies. So there's not that kind of pressure on them," said Ed Brizzi, community education and outreach coordinator for Womansplace.
"They're already entering an unfamiliar setting, and this way they don't have to go into another unfamiliar environment," said Brizzi, who also spends part of his day as the on-site instructor for youngsters whose ages can range from 5 to 18.
"This also allows them to do things at their own pace so they don't feel behind other kids in the class."
Gail Odorcich, Allegheny County coordinator for Pennsylvania's Homeless Children's Initiative, said that while cyber school would not be an option for every homeless youngster, computer courses could provide flexibility for children who may need to go to school during the summer or on weekends to keep up.
The cyber school also could provide consistency for homeless youngsters because they can remain in the program even after they leave the shelter and move to another area.
Although there are no firm statistics on the number of school-age, homeless children, federal officials estimate that about 1.35 million youngsters annually are homeless at some point during the year.
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In 1997, the most recent year available, about 88 percent of the youngsters identified as homeless nationally were enrolled in a school, but 45 percent of that group did not attend school regularly, said Barbara Duffield, education director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless.
Among the problems in educating homeless children is transportation from shelters or other locations. And there are more obstacles: Finding and transferring school records, obtaining medical care, determining whether the children need special education, and giving them an opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities.
Then there's the issue of getting youngsters safely to and from school when domestic violence was a contributing factor for their homelessness.
The federal Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act provides states with money to address such problems and includes regulations for educating homeless children. While the law has made a difference -- many more homeless children now attend school than before it was enacted in 1987 -- Duffield and others say the $35 million currently allocated is not enough to address the educational needs of homeless children across the country.
The McKinney Act is in the process of being reauthorized as part of President Bush's education package, and homeless services advocates are hoping that next year the amount allocated to the act is at least $50 million.
Additional money would help Pennsylvania, where $1.3 million in McKinney funds are used to support the Pennsylvania Homeless Children's Initiative and its 13 offices.
The federal money pays for the salaries and benefits of the staff members in these offices who are responsible for ensuring that homeless youngsters in their areas are enrolled in school. The funds also are used to help with school supplies, clothing, transportation and tutoring.
Sheldon Winnick, state coordinator for the initiative, said it took at least $70,000 just to get one office started. The grants are competitively awarded every year.
That's why in Western Pennsylvania there are only two liaison offices, one in Allegheny County that serves about 1,000 homeless children and another in Erie that serves more than 225.
There are no offices in some places, including Washington County, where state records show more than 180 school-age homeless youngsters, and Butler County, where homeless children number at least 400. In those counties, local school officials who are busy trying to address the needs of regular students also must keep tabs on and try to educate homeless youngsters.
In Allegheny County, the liaison office receives about $102,000 in federal funds. Because of a collaboration between shelters and school districts, officials say 95 percent to 99 percent of the homeless youngsters entering a shelter are enrolled in school within five days.
Still, all programs for homeless children face challenges. Teens, for example, are prime candidates for dropping out of school because they have problems adjusting to the environment and fitting in socially, Odorcich said.
Those are the reasons Odorcich began working with Paula Calabrese, assistant executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, to place some homeless children in the PA Learners charter school. It opened with about 200 students this fall, and Odorcich hopes that some of their mothers also will take online courses.
The McKeesport shelter was chosen as the pilot site because officials there had expressed the most interest and because Brizzi, who is certified in elementary education, was already on staff.
Youngsters at the shelter attend school in a neighboring house where academic classes are conducted on the second floor using about a half-dozen computers, the Internet and instructional software.
In the cozy dining and living rooms downstairs, the younger children spend the afternoon working on arts and crafts projects with child advocate Rosha Gregory.
On a recent school day, Brizzi helped Harley Dingeldine, 17, as he typed an essay and reviewed Spanish vocabulary. Brizzi also helped Lennisha, 6, and Lillian, 5, use a software program and pencil and paper to practice writing letters and pronounce their sounds.
While the shelter protects the identity of their temporary residents, the girls and their mother recently moved from the shelter to an apartment, making them no longer homeless. Their last names still are withheld to protect them from domestic violence. The children were continuing their cyber classes at the shelter at the mother's request.
Dingeldine, the son of a shelter employee, dropped out of high school but has become an enthusiastic cyber school student.
"It's easier for me to focus when it's just me by myself. When I was in school, me and my friends got in trouble, so it's good that I'm here," he said. Then he added with a smile, "I don't have wake up all early like I did before, and it's fun helping out with the little kids."
The one-room schoolhouse environment of the pilot program with children of varying ages keeps Brizzi on his toes, but he said it helped that the youngsters, particularly older ones such as Dingeldine, could work on their own.
If the pilot proves successful, it also could demonstrate how homeless youngsters in counties without local Homeless Children's Initiative offices could enroll in a cyber school and keep up with their schoolwork, Odorcich said.
She also pointed out that the McKeesport pilot did not use any federal McKinney money; it is arranged through the shelter and supported by local school district funds, as is the case with nonhomeless cyber charter school students.
Still, Duffield said a cyber school program should be limited to before- and after-school assistance and shouldn't be used to replace regular school attendance because part of the school experience is socializing with other youngsters.
She said the McKinney Act guarded against schools that isolate homeless youngsters, and she feared that school districts might look at cyber schools as an easy way out in dealing with homeless students. Separate schools that were established before initiation of the McKinney restrictions were grandfathered into the funding stream, but remain controversial.
Odorcich responded, however, that not all homeless children in area should or would attend the cyber charter school if the pilot is successful.
Because of the transient nature of homeless families, it is unlikely that a large number of children would be involved. At the McKeesport shelter, fewer than a half-dozen youngsters have been in the program at any given time.
Also, parental involvement, on-site supervision at the shelter and consistent study habits by students would be crucial for any child to remain in the program, she said.
"This is not a Homeless Children's Initiative school and is in no way meant to isolate children," she said. "It's an option."
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