The first day of school for families displaced by the May 16 tornado will look a lot different this year.
Many students are still living in temporary housing, such as homes of family and friends or hotels or Airbnbs, as they consider relocating permanently or rebuilding.
These students are covered by the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which provides protections for homeless students so they can continue to attend public school.
The statute provides help such as transportation and free meals for families wishing to either:
1. Send their children to their school of origin, which is the school a student attended prior to losing their permanent housing.
2. Send their children to the school of residence, which is usually the closest school to their new, temporary residence.
The protections also apply to unaccompanied minors, or children who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
Typically, families wishing to enroll children in public schools must attend the district in which they live.
The law defines a homeless child as someone who is:
- Lacking a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.
- Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason.
- Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds, emergency or transitional shelters or are abandoned in hospitals.
- Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations or similar settings.
- At a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
- Migrant children.
The types of support that are available to students include:
- Transportation paid for by the public school district that they attend.
- Food and water.
- Right to immediate enrollment in a school.
Every school district in the state is required to have a homeless liaison or coordinator to help students determine the best decision for them, according to Tera Bock, the director of homeless education at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“[The] district is determined on a case-by-case basis for each student, based on their needs and which district is the best fit,” Bock said. “So there are some student-centered factors that the school would consider along with the parent or whoever is enrolling that student to determine which school that they can go to.”
Those student-centered factors include a student’s commute to school or individualized education program (IEP), for example.
Families that have lost their children’s documents, including birth certificates and health records, due to temporary displacement do not need to have them on hand to enroll in a new school.
St. Louis Public Schools and Confluence Academies have both said they've conducted outreach to tornado-impacted families to inform them of the additional support available.
You can find the information of various homeless coordinators in St. Louis public school systems, including charter schools, below.
St. Louis Public Schools
Name: Deidra Thomas-Murray
Title: Director of students-in-transition, homeless and foster care liaison
Address: 801 N. 11th St.
Phone: 314-345-4501
Email: deidra.thomas-murray@slps.org
Confluence Academies
Name: Leslie Muhammad
Title: Director of student services and family involvement
Address: 319 N. 4th St., Suite 500
Phone: 314-588-8554
Email: lmuhammad@confluenceacademies.org
City Garden Montessori School
Name: Ellen Curry
Title: Family support coordinator
Address: 1618 Tower Grove Ave.
Phone: 314-664-7646
Email: ellen.curry@citygardenschool.org
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Name: Tera Bock
Title: Director of homeless education
Address: 205 Jefferson St., Jefferson City
Phone: 573-522-8763
Email: tera.bock@dese.mo.gov
