Roy Blunt has the power, expertise to help homeless Missouri students during pandemic

Schools and businesses have closed across the state and local governments have ordered residents to stay at home to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. But where do you go, and what do you do, if you don’t have a home?

This question faces more than 36,000 students in Missouri who experience homelessness. In the best of times, homeless students are perhaps our most vulnerable population. They include young people with disabilities and limited English language skills, as well as those who have been kicked out of their homes or fled because of abuse or neglect. Many are alone and afraid.

For children experiencing homelessness, schools are much more than classrooms. School often is the most stable and secure part of their day, a place that — unlike where they sleep at night — does not change. Now that schools have closed, these students have lost access to the education, food, health care and mental health services that their schools provide them.

Unfortunately, the number of students experiencing homelessness most likely will rise in the weeks and months ahead. As more businesses close and workers lose their jobs, families teetering on the financial edge may be forced to leave their homes. This happened during the Great Recession.

During the 2007-2008 school year, when the Great Recession began, Missouri schools counted 11,977 homeless students. In the 2010-2011 school year after the recession, the number of homeless students jumped to nearly 20,000.

In this current crisis, unemployment is already accelerating rapidly. During the last two weeks of March, the number of unemployment claims in Missouri skyrocketed from fewer than than 4,000 to more than 104,000.

Even though school buildings are closed, schools have an opportunity — and a legal and moral obligation — to support students experiencing homelessness. The education funding provided in Congress’ Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act may help, but it is insufficient to meet the needs of the increasing number of homeless students. As states use this new funding to address a variety of competing needs, homeless students will fall through the cracks all too easily.

To protect the interests of students experiencing homelessness, subsequent economic stimulus packages should include targeted funding to support these vulnerable young people through the existing infrastructure of the federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program. This program requires every school district to designate a liaison who is required to identify homeless students and connect them to resources. Now, more than ever, these liaisons need resources to ensure homeless students are safe and able to continue learning.

This has been the approach in previous emergency relief legislation, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the federal disaster relief provided in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike. The new CARES Act allows, but does not earmark funding to support homeless students. These students need and deserve more than an allowance. They need to be prioritized.

As Congress contemplates a fourth piece of legislation to respond to the coronavirus, Missouri’s Sen. Roy Blunt has an opportunity to advocate for these students as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, which funds education. Blunt is a former teacher and university president, so he understands the importance of supporting the educational needs of every student.

Now Missouri’s educators need his help to ensure that our neediest students — those experiencing homelessness — are not forgotten.

This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Roy Blunt has the power, expertise to help homeless Missouri students during pandemic."