President's Budget Ignores Homeless Kids!

[Feb. 3, 2010] The proposed FY11 budget shows a dismaying lack of awareness of the surging number of homeless children/youth and their educational needs. This NAEHCY alert gives you all the information you need to let President Obama know that homeless kids count, and education is essential for their futures.

Please send a letter (see alert for sample) or at least circulate the petition and share this alert. Although the budget process is a long one, "If we're not at the table they'll eat us for lunch!"

• NAEHCY alert 2/2/10
• HEAR US Petition
  

The new HOMELESS EDUCATION bill has been introduced! S. 2800 (11/09) VIEW AND TRACK

This long-awaited bill improves the current--and great--McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act of 2001. It's name is, appropriately enough, the Educational Success for Children without Homes Act of 2009. Tremendous work has gone into crafting this essential piece of legislation by Barbara Duffield and her unheralded ad hoc team of dedicated advocates.

• Read her summary and get more info on this bill/advocacy effort.
• Contact your Senators and get them onboard! (see sample letter below)

COMPANION BILL FOR CHILDREN/YOUTH in FOSTER CARE, S 2801 (11/09) VIEW AND TRACK

Often children and youth in foster care have school access and stability issues, much like homeless kids. This bill uses the vast experience and success of M-V homeless education and creates similar legislative remedy for foster care kids.

• Read her summary and get more info on this bill/advocacy effort.
• Contact your Senators and get them onboard! (see sample letter below)
  
  
  

The Honorable Firstname Lastname

U.S. Senate

Washington DC 20510

Dear Senator Lastname:

I urge you to sign on as a sponsor of The “Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009,” S. 2800, and the “Fostering Success in Education Act of 2009,” S. 2801. These critical bills help ensure that children and youth who are homeless or in foster care receive the education that they need to be successful in life.

Over one million children and youth suffer the deprivation of homelessness over the course of a year; this number is growing dramatically as a result of the economic and housing crises. Each year, over 800,000 children and youth are in foster care; these children and youth have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. Both homeless students and students in foster care face significant and common barriers to education, including high rates of mobility, inability to meet enrollment requirements, and lack of transportation to maintain school stability. When these barriers are not addressed, these vulnerable youngsters often are unable to attend, or even enroll in, school, which prevents them from obtaining the education that is their best hope for a better future.

While homeless students and students in foster care face many of the same challenges, they also have distinct needs. S. 2800 and S. 2801 recognize these differences and provide appropriate supports.

• If you work primarily with children and youth who are homeless, please include information about the numbers and needs of the homeless children and youth you serve, and the importance of any the following to your efforts: liaisons and state coordinators with sufficient time, training, and resources to carry out their tasks; funding for transportation to keep children and youth stable in their original schools; improving access to early childhood for preschool children, including transportation services; addressing credit transfers and recovery for youth; and improving the amount and authorized uses of Title I Part A funding (see bill summary for other provisions). Conclude with: “S. 2800 addresses all of these issues, and will help ensure that your community or state’s name homeless children and youth have the opportunities they need to succeed. Children and youth in foster care have similar needs; I therefore urge you to support S. 2801 as well.”

• If you work primarily with children and youth who are in foster care: please include information about the needs of the children and youth you serve, and the importance of any the following to your efforts: requiring school districts to collaborate to keep children and youth in their original school, when it is in their best interest, or immediately enroll in a new school; clarifying that transportation is to be paid for by child welfare agencies, when necessary, to keep children and youth in their school of origin – and that school districts must collaborate with child welfare agencies to faciliate this transportation; designating coordinators at both school districts and child welfare agencies to ensure that the educational needs of children in foster care are met; ensuring that foster youth who change schools can recover credits and graduate; and providing funding for school districts to better serve children and youth in foster care. Conclude with: “S. 2801 addresses all of these issues, and will help ensure that your community or state’s name children and youth in foster care have the opportunities they need to succeed. Children and youth who are homeless have similar needs; I therefore urge you to support S. 2800 as well.”

• If you are working with both homeless and foster children and youth: please include information about the needs of both groups of children and youth and how the bills will advance your efforts to assist them.

Children and youth experiencing homelessness or in foster care are among the nation’s most vulnerable young people. We must provide them with every possible support and opportunity to be successful. Therefore, I urge you to co-sponsor the “Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act of 2009” (S. 2800) and the “Fostering Success in Education Act of 2009” (S. 2801).

I look forward to learning your response. Thank you for leadership on behalf of all of your community or state’s name children and youth.