After staffing changes to a program for homeless students, Alachua County has been adjusting to meeting these students’ needs with less staff and resources.
Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts must ensure students without stable housing have access to transportation, basic services and education. Staff members in the district played a vital role in connecting students to these resources last year. But this school year, only three remain after the state cut funding of the program by 60%.
Dr. Joram Rejouis, director of project development at Alachua County Public Schools, said the past year has been challenging, but the program is adjusting well. He said they had difficulties with certain projects due to limited staff and resources.
“We are able to continue to provide the services, even though not to the volume that we would like, or we were doing before,” he said.
Rejouis said the staffing change has limited their reach to students in the 42 schools of the district. But he said they are trying to make things work by entering partnerships with local agencies.
“We’ve been working with some partners who were able to find housing or temporary relief for some families,” he said. “We are reaching out.”
With fewer staff members working on McKinney-Vento support districtwide, students across the county are being impacted. Homeless Education Coordinator Pamela Worsham is working on making the McKinney-Vento program suited to students’ specific educational needs.
“We like to try to keep the kids in the same school all year so they’re not bouncing around along with their housing,” she said. “And always school supplies, backpacks, we have a clothing closet.”
She joined the team this January and said the program was even more understaffed last year than they are now.
“We do have a plan in place to reduce that deficit next year,” she said, “to add some more staff on in a different way.”
Worsham said there are more than 900 students in the program as of a couple of weeks ago.
“We’ve had quite a few come in since then, so it’s probably getting closer to a thousand,” she said.
Despite staffing shortages from last year, the remaining employees are doing their best to provide academic support to students experiencing homelessness, according to Worsham.
“We try to identify the needs on a case-by-case basis and provide the support we can,” she said.
At North Central Florida Charter School, Principal Randy Starling says the district has replaced the McKinney-Vento mentor who served their school. Starling said in an email that the new staff member is still learning the role but believes she’ll be fine with more experience under her belt.
“She seems to be doing the best she can for our school,” he said.
The school faced additional disruption this year when one of its teachers died over winter break. Still, Starling said they haven’t had any major issues meeting homeless students’ needs.
“It’s a really serious need we take care of,” he said. “We try not to let any fall through the cracks.”