Ranks of homeless CPS students soar

August 14, 2006

BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter




The number of homeless Chicago Public Schools students has skyrocketed in the last six years, jumping from 3,500 in 2000 to 10,500 this year.

In the last year alone, the number jumped 17 percent, from about 9,000.

"I see looks of despair, anger -- why did my parent do this to me?" said Carol Lang, principal at Uptown's McCutcheon Elementary, where 79 of the school's 400 students were homeless last year. "They're facing adult problems, and they're kids. We want to be a safe haven."


WHERE TO DONATE






The Chicago Public Schools hopes to give its 10,500 homeless students free school supplies. It kicked off a campaign last week to recruit corporations and individuals to buy $10 kits, which include paper, scissors, notebooks, calculators, crayons and other supplies. The greatest demand is for middle and high school kits. To donate, see www.kitsforkidz.org. Donations also can be made at six U.S. Cellular stores: 5426 S. Lake Park, 1623 E. 95th, 1730 W. Fullerton, 3344 N. Western, 9500 S. Western and 1232 S. Canal. This is the second annual drive. Last year, donors bought about 3,000 kits.


Chicago's homeless numbers top even New York City's and Los Angeles'.

No one knows exactly why Chicago's numbers are up, but advocates and educators have theories. One is better reporting and services for homeless families, a result of a 1992 class-action lawsuit filed by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless against the school system. It was settled in 2000.

Since then, schools have gotten better at encouraging parents to register as homeless, which gives kids the right to be bused back to their home school when they become homeless. Homeless students also can get help with uniforms, school fees, clothing and tutoring.

Advocates also point to a loss of affordable housing because of neighborhood gentrification -- a particular problem in Uptown, Lang said.

Teacher knows struggles



CPS is better at helping homeless kids, advocates say, but they argue that progress has been undermined by Renaissance 2010, Chicago's plan to close and replace low-performing schools. Since 2004, about 270 homeless students have had to transfer after their schools closed because of low performance or low enrollment, coalition attorney Laurene Heybach said.

Last year, CPS and the coalition reached an agreement to transfer homeless students to better schools, Heybach said. But this year, the coalition had to fight to get them slots at better schools, and students are just now learning what all of their choices are, she said.

She also said CPS has no long-term plan for helping homeless students as their schools close. "Their job is to give an adequate education for these kids," Heybach said. "What are they doing? Pushing them around."

Patrick Rocks, CPS general counsel, says CPS has proposed a long-term solution but it was rejected by Heybach's group without a counterproposal. He also said this year's delay wasn't CPS' fault. To give homeless students top priority at certain top-performing schools, CPS needed federal and state approval.

Lang knows her students' struggles intimately. In the 1940s, when she was a little girl, she was homeless. Later, though, she and her siblings earned college degrees. "I tell my story to parents," Lang said. "I say, 'If I can make it, you and your children can.'"

kgrossman@suntimes.com