Cape School District works to help homeless students

For some students at Cape Girardeau Central schools, questions such as �Where will I sleep tonight?� and �What�s for dinner?� don�t always have easy answers.

That�s where Deena Ring, assistant superintendent of special services, and her office�s programs step in, when they can.

Ring said there are 144 homeless families in the district.

Missouri�s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education numbers for the 2016-2017 school year indicate slightly more than 300 students in the district were considered homeless.

That�s up from about 250 in 2015-2016, 192 in 2014-2015, 136 in 2013-2014 and 118 in 2012-2013, according to DESE.

It isn�t necessarily obvious which students are facing homelessness, Ring said, �but when we know, we do try to work with parent liaisons, social workers, to access any kind of community agency support, and see what the family needs are.�

Ring said there has been a significant increase of homeless students at Central schools, but in recent years, the rate of increase has slowed.

�I think we are doing a way better job of being able to identify those students and work with them than, say, 10 years ago,� Ring said, adding she thinks community-wide awareness of the homelessness issue is increasing.

Counting homelessness can be difficult, Ring said, because some families may not come forward to let the district know their housing situation.

�We also have, particularly at the secondary level, students staying with a friend or with other family members,� Ring said. �We may not know about it.�

That�s partly why the district has taken so many measures to combat hunger, Ring said, by implementing the Grab & Go program providing students with snacks at the end of the school day, and the Backpacks for Fridays program, which sends a backpack home on Fridays with qualifying students to help feed them through the weekend.

That way, Ring said, even if the district staff doesn�t know about a family�s homelessness, students can still have some of their most basic needs met.

�If we know a student has a need, we ... see what we can do to help bridge some of those needs,� Ring added.

Being able to meet some basic needs for students means they have a better chance of being able to concentrate enough to learn, Ring said.

�From a student standpoint, it�s really hard if you think about it, to sit in a classroom and concentrate when your belly�s growling, or you don�t know where you�re going to lay your head to sleep tonight,� Ring said. �It comes back to basic needs that need to be met.�

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.