Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
All Content > Impact/Investigative > Mid Atlantic

Title of entry: 
Homeless students failed by competing federal policies

Issue or Publication date:
3/7/2022

Publication name: 
K-12 Dive

Publishing/parent company: 
Industry Dive

View Website home page:
https://www.k12dive.com/

About the Publication:

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

After hearing about challenges schools face to help homeless students, K-12 Dive Senior Reporter Naaz Modan wondered, "Why is it so difficult to supply basic resources for the students who need it most?"

Modan worked through the tangled web of laws and regulations governing aid to homeless students and uncovered the answer — a big disconnect in federal policies. The U.S. Department of Housing defines homelessness as living on the street or in a homeless shelter, but the U.S. Department of Education extends this to children or families sharing housing with others. These small differences in words mean big gaps in services as Modan calculated more than 70% of students who can get help from the Education Department are barred from HUD help.

Her coverage identifies where government agencies fall short in their "official" count of homeless people, but goes beyond the numbers by sharing the life story of Krystle Crawford and her family. The article captures the cyclic and multigenerational nature of homelessness — one that begins with a homeless public school student who, years later, is once again homeless, but this time with a child who misses out on important early education services and falls behind before he gets started.

Modan’s work developed enough trust with a source to share personal details of her life at the same time explaining the problems with federal policies that could have helped her. It's a story of hindsight: how, with the right systems in place, everything could have been different.

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https://www.k12dive.com/news/slipping-through-the-cracks-differing-federal-policies-keep-homeless-stude/619756/