Ensuring all homeless youth have access to higher educational opportunities District School Board of...
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Ensuring all homeless youth have access to higher educational opportunities District School Board of Pasco County Students In Transition Erika Remsberg, L.C.S.W.
Ensuring all homeless youth have access to higher educational opportunities District School Board of Pasco County Students In Transition Erika Remsberg,
Ensuring all homeless youth have access to higher educational
opportunities District School Board of Pasco County Students In
Transition Erika Remsberg, L.C.S.W.
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Barbara Duffield, NAEHCY Policy Director http://naehcy.org
Christina Dukes, SERVE Center, NCHE http://center.serve.org/nche/
Lorraine Allen, Florida State Liaison Dee Dee Wright, Polk County
Liaison Dr. Lucy Garner, Retired Charlotte County Joanne Huber,
Retired Pasco County Liaison
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O Overview of county, district and program O Data from
2012-2013 school year O Team overview O District Vision, Team Goals
O Legislative Changes O Challenges (External/Internal) O Resources
O What we did/Outcomes O Data project / Survey results O Progress O
Moving forward O Links
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O Pasco county is Florida's 12th most populous county. O
Unemployment above state average at 11%. O Serves over 67,000
students in 84 schools. O 1,992 enrolled homeless students 6/2013.
O 56% of students qualify for free lunch. O 57% of residents spend
more than 30% of their income on housing. O 78% of adult residents
completed High School.
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2012-2013 School Year 2372 Identified homeless children and
youth 1992 Enrolled homeless students 283 Unaccompanied Youth 71
High school seniors
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District based Director Homeless Liaison / Social Worker Social
Worker Data Entry Operator / Spanish Translator Part-time intern 12
weeks Tel: 813-794-4980 Fax: 813-794-4987 Email:
[email protected]
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District School Board of Pasco County Fulfilling the promise
college, career and life readiness for each and every student
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S.I.T. team goals
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Fee Waivers The state of Florida offers a fee exemption to
county/state colleges/universities per section 1009.25(1)(f),
Florida Statutes, for those students with homeless status.
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Access to higher education Students experiencing homelessness
may not even think going to college is a possibility for them
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O 2 domestic violence shelters O 1 runaway/unaccompanied youth
shelter serving ages 11-17 O 1 shelter for women and women with
children O 2 privately run shelters housing adults only O NO FAMILY
SHELTERS O NO SHELTERS HOUSING MEN WITH CHILDREN
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O Limited information about fee waiver exemption other than
homelessness was now included O Outdated contact information for
contacts at colleges/universities O Homelessness being included in
statute was new for colleges/universities, no process in place, no
department ownership
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O Classroom style training more difficult, department meetings
became quarterly instead of monthly. O Web-based training had been
established, to reach a broader audience but fee waivers were not
included in the training. O Staffing, social worker on maternity
leave between Dec-April only 1 full-time social worker
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O District supervisors (Social Work & Guidance Counselors)
worked with us to educate staff O Homeless advocates, Guidance
Counselors and Career Specialists at high school level were highly
motivated to assist with outreach O Community support was positive
O Intern was highly motivated and made serving homeless youth
primary focus of her data project.
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O Examined how time was spent, made adjustments. O Ensured
every school site had updated resource books for families and
unaccompanied homeless youth. O Developed a complete contact list
and process for all state/county colleges and universities.
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O Outreached every identified homeless senior, there were 71 O
Provided resource materials to the seniors O Utilized guidance
counselors, social workers, administrators and front-end staff for
outreach. O Followed up at least one time.
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What did we learn? Front-end staff were just as key as guidance
counselors were to connecting students with resources and higher
education.
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What did we learn? After the initial contact with the senior,
ongoing communication was more likely if we were willing to
text/email the students.
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What did we learn? Negotiating the college system can be a
confusing and frustrating process. Students were willing/able to
advocate for themselves but often did not know how.
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Data project 1. How long ago did you lose housing? 2. Reason
for losing housing? 3. Who is your primary support person? 4. Most
immediate concern? 5. Biggest barrier to college? 6. How confident
are you college is an option?
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How long ago did you lose housing?
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Reason for leaving home?
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Most immediate concern
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If you want to go to college, biggest barrier for you?
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How confident you could go to college if you wanted to?
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Progress to date
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Moving forward O Update resource guides annually to include
information regarding fee waivers, financial aid, scholarships and
community resources O Continue to partner with administrators,
career specialists, front-end and guidance staff. O Continue to
train and coordinate efforts with community partners O Annually
update contacts and processes for public Florida colleges and
universities. O Identify staff responsible for recertification at
college/university
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Moving forward O Outreach every identified homeless senior. O
Help them to identify a primary support person to assist them with
negotiating the application/aid process. O Utilize community
partners, volunteers and donors to assist these students.
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FAFSA / ACT / SAT Free Application for Federal Student Aid -
Used to access need-based federal aid programs authorized under
Title IV of the Higher Education Act and include: Pell Grant,
Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Federal Work Study,
Perkins Loan, TEACH Grant, SMART Grant, and Academic
Competitiveness Grant.
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ Already solid
process in place at school sites to assist with ACT/SAT waivers.
http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-fee-waivers and
http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/feewaiver.pdf
http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-fee-waivershttp://www.act.org/aap/pdf/feewaiver.pdf
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Financial Aid Resource
http://www.nasfaa.org/students/State_Financial_Aid_Programs.aspx