Review of “From Charity to Equity: Race, Homelessness, & Urban Schools,” by Ann M. Aviles de Bradley, 2015. New York: Teachers College Press, paper, 116 pages.
I recommend this book heartily.
Professor Aviles de Bradley, who used to be at Northeastern Illinois University, is now at the University of Delaware and is an expert on homeless teens. The expertise comes through in this qualitative study of students and staff in Chicago high schools. The professor interviewed six homeless students to learn about their experiences.
The professor discovered a lot of very interesting information about how people were treating those students. Aviles de Bradley based her opinions upon the rules and requirements of something called the federal *McKinney-Vento Act. It includes strict guidelines for serving homeless students. The overall guidance is that homeless students are entitled to the same access to education and programs (e.g., after school clubs and support) as students who are housed.
Illinois has an even more specific set of guidelines for serving homeless students in the **Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act. This includes important features of providing support to unhoused students, such as giving transportation.
Like many laws out there, these present some requirements that schools sometimes try to ignore, circumvent, and address only partially. Aviles de Bradley found out that indeed school employees in the two high schools where she did her research did not do a very good job of serving the unroofed students.
She interviewed staff members also (each building is supposed to have an advocate designated to serve and protect homeless students).
In some buildings, the advocate was strong, devoted, helpful, and personable. They were approachable and genuine. In other buildings, the advocate was not as great a resource. As human nature would predict, some people were very busy—in some cases out there—too busy to help kids who did not have a decent or secure place to sleep at night, do their homework, shower, keep their clothing, etc.
Whey is there so much attention to the “special” needs and demands of the homeless lifestyle? Why are people homeless? Why can people not get out of homelessness more easily? Questions like these are really outside the reality of where things are now in terms of kids living without a roof.
Important to remember is the reality of the number of homeless youth—and their parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents—we are talking about:
— Most recent figures show over 50,000 homeless children in Illinois
— Over 16,000 homeless students in Chicago Public Schools District 299
— Over 60,000 homeless persons within the city of Chicago—not counting migrants
— Over 20,000 migrants in Chicago now who are homeless, some in shelters, some in hotels, some in vans, some in the armory and other such locations
Aviles de Bradley includes in her study an explanation of how she planned for the interviews, what she did with the data, and what the implications of the findings seem to indicate. She did a thorough job of providing the reader with ideas on how to move forward.
The conversation about how to best serve school students who are unhoused needs to continue. This book can serve as a wonderful book club selection. This is an important book for teachers to read.
I recommend this book heartily not only as background reading for educators but also for professional development information for teachers and counselors—both in school and out. Working on the street, professionals and grassroots helpers alike can profit from the clear and candid words expressed by the students, especially.
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For further reading:
* McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act - Wikipedia
** (ilga.gov)