The Texas Education Agency has introduced a new toolkit for educators to provide guidance on disciplining homeless students, and will host a webinar to fully explain how the toolkit can be put to use.
The McKinney-Vento Discipline Toolkit is intended to give educators help responding to homeless students by providing practices and procedures relating to discipline. TEA will host a webinar on Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. to help stakeholders understand the new set of resources mandated by the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
The state of Texas provides guidance for schools dealing with the unique issues homeless students face. Under Texas law, homeless students may enroll in any school without needing to provide any mandatory paperwork and can begin classes immediately. They are not required to provide residency or citizenship information in an effort to ensure these vulnerable students don’t fall through the cracks.
Texas Project First reports that 17% of homeless students in Texas also receive special education services. Homelessness can cause a number of mental health issues including hunger, diminished support, injuries and illnesses, and health problems according to Edmentum.com.
The Children’s Defense Fund reported in 2020 that during the 2017-2018 school year, around 1.5 million students nationwide met the definition of being homeless and that these students frequently suffered from significantly worse scores in reading and math than their housed counterparts.
“Homelessness here is defined as lacking a fixed, regular, adequate place to sleep at night,” CDF wrote. “Children living in shared housing due to eviction or economic hardship, in hotels, motels, shelters or on the street fit this definition; the majority of homeless children are living ‘doubled up’ in shared housing, which is often cramped and dangerous.”
The new toolkit developed by TEA will help school districts to identify strategies they can employ to improve outcomes while reducing disciplinary actions that can further reduce outcomes. TEA reports statewide data on disciplinary action, but does not specify actions specifically taken against homeless students. Some of the leading causes of discipline in Texas are violations of code of conduct and fighting. The most common action taken was in-school suspension.
Anyone interested in reviewing the new resource guide can access a copy through the TEA website. TEA also offers a variety of other programs and resources to schools and administrators to aid in providing solutions for students to help improve outcomes.