Homeless and Education System Collaboration for Education Stakeholders December 14, 2015 John McGah...

Homeless and Education System Collaboration

for Education Stakeholders

December 14, 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 we are 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 Continuum of Care (CoC)

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)

8

Ginzler, et al, 2007; The National Center on Family Homelessness, 1999, 2009; United States Department of Education, 2000.

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 (cont’d)

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 2020. 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 dislocationPromote access to and effective use of mainstream programsOptimize self-sufficiency

13

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

14

Key CoC Concepts

The Continuum of Care (CoC) and it’s goals

Application Process for CoC Funds

System performance measures

Continuum of care culture

15

Community Perspective

Beth McCullough

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

16

Question?

What do you see as the greatest obstacles to better collaboration

between the education and homeless service

systems?

17

Viewing the Problem Through a Systemic Lens

18

What Keeps Us Separated?

Hard Factors:– Rules/laws

– MOUs*

– Data

– Firewalls

– Funding

*Memos of Understanding

Soft Factors:

– Assumptions

– Perspective

– Beliefs

– Values

19

Approaches for Promoting Collaboration

Recognizing our own mental models

Stakeholder analysis

Identifying boundary spanners

20

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

21

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…

22

A CoC Meeting

Role Primary Priorities Other 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

Homeless Parent

Homeless Services Case Worker

CoC Lead Agency

Elected Official

Business Leader

Affordable Housing Advocate

23

Changing Mental Models

Surface current beliefs

Ask, “Do our mental models help us achieve what we want?”

Encourage learning across stakeholders

Seek disconfirming data

Consider alternative interpretations

Develop shared vision and supportive mental models

Conduct experiments

Build on small successes and learn from failures

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 Continuum of Care (CoC)

• 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:https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/

HUD CoC Program Interim Rule: https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/CoCProgramInterimRule_FormattedVersion.pdf

29

Resources (cont’d)

HUD Ask A Questionhttps://www.hudexchange.info/get-assistance/my-question/

Your Local HUD Regional TA Team National Center on Family

Homelessness/ American Institutes for Research (AIR)www.familyhomelessness.org

30

Presenter contact information

31

Look for a follow-up e-mail with a link to the handouts webpage and a webinar evaluation

Presenter contact information

John McGah (NCFH), jmcgah@air.org

John McLaughlin (ED), john.mclaughlin@ed.gov

Kevin Solarte (HUD), kevin.m.solarte@hud.gov

Beth McCullough (MI), bmccullough@adrian.k12.mi.us