Homelessness in Johnson County doesn’t always look like the stereotypical image of sleeping on the streets next to a cardboard sign.
For local families, being homeless means bouncing between shelters and motels. They rely on friends and family members, sleeping on couches and in spare rooms. All the while, they have no permanent address to call their own.
Students and families facing homelessness have a resource in every school in Johnson County. Federal law requires each state department of education to establish programs for schools to provide services to homeless students.
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Every school district in the county has a homelessness liaison which connects families to resources in the community.The liaisons can get them into more stable housing situations, point them toward access to free meals from food pantries and alert them of local job opportunities.
Homeless students also receive free or reduced-price meals at school, along with free textbook rental and transportation to and from school.
Franklin schools wraps services around students
Kimberly Spurling, homelessness liaison at Franklin Community Schools, helps connect students and their families to not only resources in the county, but Franklin-centric projects like Cub Pantry and Cub Closet, which help feed and clothe students and their families.
“We have the highest number of (homeless) students over all the school corporations in Johnson County,” Spurling said during a Franklin school board meeting in November. “Families here are struggling with poverty issues, affordable housing issues.”
The mechanism to help homeless students comes from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, legislation that was passed in 1987 and reauthorized in 2015. The law provides funding for resources for homeless students.
Through McKinney-Vento, Spurling and other liaisons ensure students have access to transportation, free meals and textbooks at school. They also help connect families with resources across the county such as the United Way and No Place to Call Home that help at-risk families find employment and more stable housing.
At Franklin schools, there are 264 students who have been identified as homeless, either by teachers, guidance counselors, other school staff or students and families who have self-reported.
Of that number, 217 families have received help so far this school year, said Spurling, adding that some families never respond to outreach efforts and others refuse help. The district has a more than 50 percent success rate in getting families into more stable situations, meaning families are in permanent housing, paying their bills on time and can afford basic necessities like food, she said.
While not all families accept help, Spurling said she sends each family in need a community resource packet containing information about various resources around the county that are available to residents in need.
“I think Franklin does a wonderful job of identifying families who are struggling and to try and wrap services around them,” Spurling said.
Between the 2015-16 and 2017-18 school years, Johnson County’s homeless student count dropped to 518 from 646, according to the Indiana Department of Education. Statistics regarding homelessness can be flawed, however, as they rely on school districts identifying students as being in that condition, which Spurling said she trains staff to do.
Any decrease in the homeless population may not be a result of families improving their situations, but rather moving away, she said, referring to a sharp decrease between 2015-16 and 2016-17 when the number of homeless students in the district dropped to 187 from 321.
“That year we had a lot of families transfer out,” Spurling said. “If they transfer, we can no longer count them under us. We had a lot of families moving out, several families transient and hopping around from city to city.
“The numbers we’re dealing with, we’re not seeing dramatic decreases by any stretch. I work with other programs working with homelessness and our numbers are as high as ever.”
Clark-Pleasant meets students, families wherever they are
Despite having a larger overall student body, Clark-Pleasant schools had just over one-sixth of the homeless student count of Franklin during the 2017-18 school year, according to the state department of education.
The district assisted 68 families that year, 43 of which were still in need of services at the end of the school year, said Shelley Gies, Clark-Pleasant’s homelessness liaison and curriculum director. It often takes a while for families to find permanent housing even when the district assists them, she said.
“Johnson County does not have a (homeless) shelter,” Gies said. “Finding housing and being able to keep students in Johnson County schools is hard. We don’t have anything in the county. A lot of times families will go to hotels. Hotels work with that but it’s expensive. We provide services through the end of the year even if they do find housing.”
During monthly meetings, the six Johnson County liaisons share ideas with each other on how to better help the students and families they are serving. For example, despite the lack of shelters, Franklin provides Johnson County Access bus passes, transportation to shelters and gas vouchers for its students and families in need, Spurling said.
Clark-Pleasant goes as far as the Washington Square area in Indianapolis to provide transportation for one of its families, Geis said. While families often don’t plan on living that far away from the school their child goes to, when they are on the verge of homelessness, they often don’t have a choice.
Those families have to make a choice if they are not able to find permanent housing in Johnson County, and their best option may be to transfer to another district.
“Parents want their children to stay at the same school because so much is going on in their lives,” Gies said. “It’s really hard but (sometimes) we are able to leave them in schools with their friends and teachers that know them to make that learning as consistent as possible. Sometimes with the best of intentions, attendance becomes a problem and that leads to a hard time in the classroom. Sometimes we work with families and they go to (school) wherever they are living at that time.”
Indian Creek’s building-level administrators are ‘first line of defense’
Indian Creek schools is smaller than its counterparts on the northside of the county, assisting 10 families during the 2017-18 school year, according to the department of education.
“As a liaison I have to train my staff to make sure they’re aware of what to look for (to identify) homelessness,” said Andy Cline, Indian Creek homelessness liaison and assistant superintendent. “I coordinate with building level individuals who are on the first line of defense to make sure we offer the proper opportunities for families experiencing homelessness.
“We work with families to ensure they have access to breakfast and lunch at school as well as textbook rental cost.”
The district also arranges transportation for its homeless students, Cline said.
Edinburgh benefits from collaborative efforts
Last year, 14 students at Edinburgh schools were identified as homeless. While there are fewer resources for students in need at Edinburgh schools than in larger districts like Franklin, the ability to collaborate with other liaisons around Johnson County has helped the district greatly, said Paula Wright, Edinburgh’s homelessness liaison.
Although families are in dire straits when they require assistance, treating those individuals with respect is a top priority, Wright said.
“I’ve learned there are many needs in every community, needs that are not always easy to identify,” Wright said. “I’ve learned the dignity of our school families is of the utmost importance, treating families with respect, knowing the children and being aware of their needs.”
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The number of students identified as homeless in Johnson County schools has decreased over a five-year period, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
District;2013-14;2017-18
Clark-Pleasant;85;43
Center Grove;97;145
Edinburgh;13;14
Franklin;297;251
Greenwood;113;55
Indian Creek;28;10
Source: Indiana Department of Education
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