Homeless and Education System Collaboration for Continuum of Care (CoC) Programs December 15, 2015 John McGah National Center on Family Homelessness at American Institutes for Research (AIR)

Meet Your Presenters  John McGah, Senior Associate, National Center on Family Homelessness at the American Institutes for Research (AIR)  John McLaughlin, Federal Program Coordinator, Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program, U.S. Department of Education (ED)  Kevin Solarte, Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  Beth McCullough, Homeless Education Liaison, Adrian Public Schools (MI) 2

Welcoming Remarks  John McLaughlin, Federal Program Coordinator, EHCY Program, U.S. Department of Education (ED)  Kevin Solarte, Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 3

Overview  Who commissioned this –Overview of webinar –Describe learning objectives 4

Learning Objectives  Understand the challenges facing homeless youth  Understand the benefits and challenges of collaboration  Understand the goals of the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY)  Understand practices that promote cross-system collaboration  Apply examples in collaborating across education and homeless systems to local communities  Access tools to help with cross-system collaboration 5

Framework 6

The Need for Collaboration  History  Needs of students  Needs of families  Needs of providers  Regulatory requirements 7

Stages of Systems Collaboration (Adapted from Burt & Anderson, 2006; Burt et al., 2000; Burt & Spellman, 2007) CollaborationCoordinationCommunicationIsolation 8

Ginzler, et al, 2007; The National Center on Family Homelessness, 1999, 2009; United States Department of Education, Education  Only 15% attend preschool (vs. 57% of low-income peers).  41% attend two schools each year.  26% repeat a grade.  50% perform below grade level.  16% less proficient in reading and math.  Almost 10% have learning disabilities (compared with 6.6% of nonhomeless students).  86% of homeless youth have a psychiatric disorder 9

Challenges of Serving Students Across Systems  Places communities get stuck –Lack of common vision –Different incentives/drivers Example drivers: CoC – to keep children and families from living on the streets or in emergency shelters LEAS – Ensuring access to equal education for students experiencing homelessness –Lack of understanding culture (language) –Lack of boundary spanners –Different mental models –Lack of time allowed to address the above –Integration at one level of systems perhaps, but not at leadership –Different regulatory requirements 10

A Brief Introduction of Terms  Collaboration  Mental models  Vision  Boundary spanners 11

Education and the Continuum of Care  Overview of the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program  Requirements of homeless liaisons  Requirements of the Continuum of Care (CoC) and providers within the CoC 12

Goals of the Continuum of Care Program The main goal of the CoC is to support the Opening Doors goal to prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in It does this by helping families, youth, and children move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and preventing a recurrence of their homelessness. CoC Goals as stated in The McKinney -Vento Homeless Assistance Act:  Promote community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness  Provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, and local governments to re-house homeless individuals and families rapidly while minimizing the trauma and dislocation  Promote access to and effective use of mainstream programs  Optimize self-sufficiency 13

Goals of the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY)  Ensuring access to equal education for students experiencing homelessness  Making sure students stay enrolled in school (ideally in the student’s school of origin)  Preparing for the students’ needs in and out of school  Making sure school and afterschool programs remain accessible (which may require adjusting costs or providing transportation assistance, flexibility on time requirements, and other considerations given the student’s living situation), and  Fostering collaboration among community service providers to meet the needs of students who are homeless beyond those offered within the school system. 14

The Pillars of EHCY  Ensuring access to equal education for students experiencing homelessness  Making sure students stay enrolled in school (ideally in the student’s school of origin)  Preparing for the students’ needs in and out of school  Making sure school and afterschool programs remain accessible (which may require adjusting costs or providing transportation assistance, flexibility on time requirements, and other considerations given the student’s living situation), and  Fostering collaboration among community service providers to meet the needs of students who are homeless beyond those offered within the school system. 15

Other Aspects of the Education System  Goals of the education system  McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act  System performance measures  U.S. Dept. of Education definition of homelessness  Education culture  Usual partners in a community 16

Community Perspective Beth McCullough Beth McCullough is the homeless education liaison for Adrian Public Schools and homeless education coordinator for Lenawee County. 17

Question? What do you see as the greatest obstacles to better collaboration between the education and homeless service systems? 18

Viewing the Problem Through a Systemic Lens 19

What Keeps Us Separated?  Hard Factors: –Rules/laws –MOUs* –Data –Firewalls –Funding *Memos of Understanding  Soft Factors: –Assumptions –Perspective –Beliefs –Values 20

Approaches for Promoting Collaboration  Shared understanding of Regulations for each system  Recognizing our own mental models  Stakeholder analysis  Identifying boundary spanners 21

The Power of Mental Models  Deeply held beliefs and assumptions about ourselves and the world  Determine how and what we perceive  Guide how we act, which in turn influences our results  A critical part of system structure 22

Question  What are some “mental models” that you bring to your work? 1.The most important goals for youth and families you work with are… 2.What other people/systems should do better to serve homeless youth and their families… 23

A CoC Meeting RolePrimary PrioritiesOther Priorities McKinney-Vento Homeless Liaison I need to ensure that all homeless children are identified within the CoC and that everyone is aware of the rights of homeless students in the community. I have high caseloads with many homeless students who need housing stability in order to achieve academically and have a bright future. We must do more to reduce the amount of children facing homelessness, including families living doubled- up. School District Official I need to ensure the academic success of the homeless children in my school district and my district as a whole. Housing has a large impact on this success. I need to meet graduation rates, ensure high test scores across my district, and reduce chronic absenteeism, among many other priorities; housing stability can help with all of these outcomes. I also need to ensure the financial health of my district and transporting homeless children from other towns is a high financial burden. Homeless Parent Homeless Services Case Worker CoC Lead Agency Elected Official Business Leader Affordable Housing Advocate 24

Boundary Spanners  Boundary-spanners “are individuals who can “move freely and flexibly within and between organizations and communities” (Peter Miller)  Are there boundary spanners in your CoC or community that could be helpful to collaboration? 25

List of Examples From the Field  Sharing data (real time and for evaluation)  Dedicated boundary spanner role  Cross-training staff and leadership  Homeless (or MH) service providers working closely with homeless liaisons  Building buy-in from key stakeholders early on  Working across subsystems at the front line, midlevel management, and leadership levels  System mapping— shared, discussed, refined, revisited 26

In Summary 27 Challenges facing homeless youth Benefits and challenges of collaboration Goals of the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Practices that promote cross-system collaboration Examples in collaborating across education and homeless systems to local communities Tools to help with cross-system collaboration

What Stage Are You?

Resources  Homelessness & Education Cross- System Collaboration: Applied Research Summary & Tools (2015)  CoC information on HUDExchange: ams/coc/ ams/coc/  HUD CoC Program Interim Rule: ces/documents/CoCProgramInterim Rule_FormattedVersion.pdf ces/documents/CoCProgramInterim Rule_FormattedVersion.pdf 29

Resources (cont’d)  HUD Ask A Question assistance/my-question/ assistance/my-question/  Your Local HUD Regional TA Team  National Center on Family Homelessness/ American Institutes for Research (AIR)

Presenter Contact Information 31 Presenter contact information John McGah (NCFH, AIR), John McLaughlin (ED), Kevin Solarte (HUD), Beth McCullough (MI),