Harnessing Lessons Learned from Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness During COVID-19: Reimagining More Just and Equitable Schooling Practices Post-Pandemic
By: Dr. Kessa Roberts, Dr. Alexandra Pavlakis, Dr. Meredith Richards, and Mark Pierce
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the schooling experiences of nearly all children, but perhaps none so acutely as children experiencing homelessness. Even prior to the pandemic, more than 1.5 million students across the U.S. spent their nights in shelters, in motels, doubled up with friends or family, or in unsheltered conditions such as in a car or on the street (National Center for Homeless Education, 2020). Students experiencing homelessness face challenges under the best of circumstances (Obradović et al., 2009; Rafferty et al., 2004). However, the economic crisis accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic worsened housing insecurity nationwide, complicating efforts to address the needs of students experiencing homelessness with particularly devasting impacts on Black and Hispanic households (Chun & Grinstein-Weiss, 2020). In this essay, we draw on our mixed-methods work in Houston, Texas (Pavlakis, Richards, et al., 2020; Pavlakis, Roberts, et al., 2020) to highlight the ways in which COVID-19 affected students experiencing homelessness, but also to highlight areas of innovation and insights for more equitable practice and policy moving forward.
We found that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities for students experiencing homelessness. As Jay*, a district leader, noted, “we may all be in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat.” For example, students experiencing homelessness had to navigate social distancing while sleeping in crowded shelters or other temporary living arrangements or had to participate in virtual schooling without adequate technology, connectivity, or electricity (SchoolHouse Connection, 2020; USICH, 2020). COVID-19 also complicated the already complex task of serving students experiencing homelessness owing to increased demand, technology and connectivity gaps, “skeleton crews” of staff due to COVID-19 illnesses and quarantines, and the temporary or permanent closure of some anti-poverty organizations. Providers can only support the students they can contact and, as Anne B. commented, COVID-19 made it “much harder to find and locate people.” Likewise, district leader Nicole, recounted her disheartening efforts to contact families for weeks without success: “hopefully one day, when I call, they’ll answer. It’s all we can really hope for.”
Despite these challenges, our work highlighted a number of ways in which COVID-19 presented opportunities for more equitable practices. For instance, necessitated by virtual learning, many students received technology from the school district, helping to alleviate (albeit certainly not solve) digital divides. The pandemic also resulted in greater prioritization of students’ non-academic needs, such as food, basic necessities, safe housing, access to healthcare, and technology. As district leader Ann observed, COVID-19 “forced everyone to slow down and pay attention,” highlighting how district efforts to combat the educational impacts of poverty and inequality are central, not supplemental, to teaching and learning.
The shift to virtual meetings also had unanticipated benefits for both school personnel and students experiencing homelessness. Milton, a district employee who supports multiple school campuses, remarked that he saves substantial time and can meet with more school leaders in one day now that he can simply, “jump off one call and I just [jump] right onto the next.” Encouragingly, CeCe, who works at a housing organization, found that students were attending more mental health appointments than they had been pre-pandemic owing to the convenience of telehealth.
Being unable to hold in-person meetings and family events also forced the district to be more intentional, systematic, and even creative (e.g., using social media messages) about reaching out to students and families rather than relying on families to initiate. Given that some families may be reticent, hesitant, or have limited opportunities to initiate such contact, this allowed for more equitable practices. In addition, district personnel noted that their increased use of these purposive and proactive practices allowed them to cultivate closer relationships with families. Additionally, when in-person events did occur, such as drive-through food pick-ups, staff seized the opportunity to make sure that families’ other needs were met, unsure of when they would have the opportunity to speak with them again.
Our work in Houston not only provides insights on how to address student homelessness during a health pandemic, but also hints at what a more just and equitable system of support could look like going forward. Overall, we do not advocate for a simple return to pre-pandemic norms, but rather a blending of useful practices. School personnel and service providers should continue to employ strategies that proved helpful in connecting them with students and families experiencing homelessness during the pandemic – including improving access to technology and connectivity as well as the intentional and persistent efforts to reach families through multiple modalities. This is especially important for the many students who are newly homeless as a result of COVID-19 and may not be aware of the anti-poverty supports offered by their schools.
We also encourage stakeholders to capitalize on the current attention on students’ non-academic needs to garner more media coverage on family homelessness in order to spread awareness, encourage donations, and help stakeholders advocate for additional funding. The use of current and forthcoming funding, such as the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, could also be used to increase creative efforts to proactively identify and support students experiencing homelessness.
Finally, the conditions of COVID-19 – including inequitable impacts on communities of color and low-income families, economic precarity, and social isolation – have resulted in trauma for many students. Schools and community organizations should partner closely to ensure that a comprehensive web of mentorship and mental health supports is available. Practices that appear to be beneficial during COVID-19 – such as telehealth appointments and social media messaging – can be coupled with in-person programing to help ensure that these supports are relevant, accessible, and mobilized. By integrating lessons from this pandemic, we can reimagine a post-pandemic terrain that is more just, compassionate, and equitable.
*All names are pseudonyms.
About the Scholars
Dr. Kessa Roberts is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. A former K-12 school psychologist, Dr. Roberts’ research explores the social context of educational leadership and policy, attending primarily to students in underserved urban and rural contexts who have been historically marginalized by educational institutions. She is particularly interested in the ways that education policies are implemented across these contexts and the role of various stakeholders, including educational leaders, parents, students, and communities, in these processes. Paramount in her work is attention how policy and practice serve to exacerbate or ameliorate current structures of inequality in our educational systems.
Dr. Alexandra Pavlakis an Associate Professor in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. A former high school teacher in New York City, her research addresses the social contexts of education. In particular, she examines how student and families’ broader life contexts intersect with educational institutions, actors, policies, and practices to shape their schooling experiences, focusing primarily on the contexts of economic disadvantage, poverty, homelessness, and housing instability.
Dr. Meredith Richards an Associate Professor in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Richards’ research seeks to understand the underlying causes of educational inequities and explore the effects of a wide range of educational policies—such as school choice, accountability, and student assignment policies—on equity and stratification in schools. In particular, her work situates policies in their metropolitan and geographic contexts, focusing on the role that educational boundaries play in facilitating social stratification and segregation.
Mark Pierce is a PhD student in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. Mr. Pierce served as the homeless liaison for Dallas Independent School District for over 20 years. His primary research focus is on student and family homelessness and how schools and community organizations can support them.
References
Chun, Y. & Grinstein-Weiss, M. (2020, December 18). Housing inequality gets worse as the COVID-19 pandemic is prolonged. The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/12/18/housing-inequality-gets-worse-as-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-prolonged/
National Center for Homeless Education [NCHE] (2020, January). Federal data summary: School years 2015-16 through 2017-18 Education for Homeless Children and Youth. https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Federal-Data-Summary-SY-15.16-to-17.18-Published-1.30.2020.pdf
Obradović, J., Long, J. D., Cutuli, J. J., Chan, C.-K., Hinz, E., Heistad, D., & Masten, A. S. (2009). Academic achievement of homeless and highly mobile children in an urban school district: Longitudinal evidence on risk, growth, and resilience. Development and Psychopathology, 21(2), 493–518. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409000273
Pavlakis, A. E.,Richards, M. P., Roberts, J. K., & Pierce, M. (2020, April 15). Examining complexity in student homelessness: The educational outcomes of HISD’s homeless students. Houston Education Research Consortium/Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research. https://bit.ly/2LvblWS
Pavlakis, A. E.,Roberts, J. K., Richards, M. P., Hill, K., & Mirakhur, Z. (2020, July). Identifying and supporting students experiencing homelessness. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, EdResearch for Recovery Brief No. 5. https://annenberg.brown.edu/school/categories/supporting-students#935
Rafferty, Y., Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. C. (2004). Academic achievement among formerly homeless adolescents and their continuously housed peers. Journal of School Psychology, 42(3), 179–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2004.02.002
SchoolHouse Connection. (2020). Lost in the masked shuffle & virtual void: Children and youth experiencing homelessness amidst the pandemic. https://schoolhouseconnection.org/lost-in-the-masked-shuffle-and-virtual-void/
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) (2020, March 16). Supporting children and youth experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 outbreak: Questions to consider. https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/supporting-children-and- youth-experiencing-homelessness-during-the-covid-19-outbreak-questions-to-consider
