Homeless Students in Fairfax Co., VA, Schools are Up 25%

The number of homeless students in Fairfax County Public Schools is up 25 percent from last year, primarily due to home foreclosures.

Kathi Sheffel has been the homeless liasion for FCPS for the last eight years.

Under a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, school districts are required to have a homeless liasion to help "highly-mobile" students maintain their educational requirements with as little disruption as possible.

Sheffel receives an annual federal grant of $97,000 to help supply her office with a full-time social worker, a part-time administrative assistant, and 21 part-time tutors for homeless students.

"We try to eliminate any barriers to their enrollment and education by providing support in lots of different ways," Sheffel says. "We want to make sure these kids don't get lost during their homelessness."

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the creation of the liaision position was influenced by statistics showing that over one million children nationwide were likely to experience homelessness in a given year.

Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act defines a homeless student as living in an emergency or transitional shelter; a motel;, hotel; or campground; in a car; a park; public place; bus or train station; abandoned building or doubled up with relatives or friends due to a lack of a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

According to Sheffel, there are nearly 1200 students in Fairfax County schools this year that meet that definition. That is an almost 25 percent increase from last year, when the number was only 900.

Asked why the numbers have increased so dramatically, she gives a one word answer: "foreclosures."

"I have been here for eight years and the numbers have increased every year, but this is not usual to have this many in such a short period," she said.

Sheffel receives calls stemming from foreclosures on a daily basis and her phone is ringing off the hook.

"I get calls from schools everyday saying that a student's family is being evicted later in the week," she says. "Many come from families being evicted because their landlords are being foreclosed upon."

Many of these families wind up taking temporary residence in one of the county's four local family shelters. But according to Belinda Buescher of the Department of Family Services, nearly 100 families are currently on a waiting list because the shelters are currently full.

"The stress on a child in a homeless situation is phenomenal," said Sheffel. "The stress of not knowing where they are going to be staying, whether or not they will be able to remain together, if their parents will be OK and if they can stay in their school, can really take their toll. We try our best to minimize that stress."

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