Recessionary tales: Schools struggle to counter the economic downturn's impact on children 

As hard as it is to watch the recession’s toll on the national economy, the real losses are occurring much closer to home.

Each day, many thousands of children show up in California schools hungry, having spent the night in a shelter or on someone’s couch. Lacking regular health care, and living with constant stress, they may develop medical and emotional problems, which can also seriously affect their academic progress. Educators are increasingly asked to become de facto social workers, caring for their students’ essential needs before they can tackle instruction to meet ever more stringent accountability standards.

Although mushrooming homelessness, hunger, and physical, oral and mental health issues are straining most schools’ resources, there are school districts and county offices of education that are finding ways to respond to these critical needs.

Homelessness

The mortgage crisis has been tough on families. At last count, according to the California Department of Education, 288,000 K–12 students were homeless—living in shelters, hotels, doubling up with other families, or taking refuge in cars or other temporary shelter. That’s a 62 percent increase since the recession began, in the 2006–07 school year, when the state’s homeless students numbered just over 178,000.

Homeless children are twice as likely to experience hunger and have health problems, repeat a grade, or be expelled from school, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness. Few are proficient in reading or math at the end of high school, from which less than 25 percent graduate.

Teachers report that homeless students often have trouble listening, following directions, asking for help and participating in activities with other students—some of the very skills needed for academic success. Their living conditions cause many to suffer from anxiety and depression and to have trouble making friends. Their school attendance is often sporadic as they move from place to place.

Statistics show that children lose from four to six months of academic growth each time they move, so the objective is to create stability for students whose families are in transition.

A portion of federal Title I dollars is earmarked for services to homeless children. A few of the 16 approved uses of funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act are to provide tutoring and transportation, do outreach and paperwork, and make medical, vision, and mental health referrals. The law specifies that schools must admit homeless students promptly, even if they don’t have a birth certificate, inoculation records or transcripts; in the meantime, county office of education liaisons can assist with locating a student’s records.

Mark Yost, foster youth and homeless services director for the San Joaquin County Office of Education, says he’s seeing a lot of families moving in with other family members after losing their homes. Because they’ve got shelter, “they don’t view themselves as homeless,” he says. Families may also be embarrassed to speak up, and it’s the district’s job to elicit the information so the students can be helped.

“The way we look at it,” Yost says, “any time you displace a child or adolescent, there is some effect on them in terms of their schooling—academically and socially. We try to create a situation where there’s as little transition as possible for those children. Anything we can do to provide a regular school day.”

The San Joaquin COE partners with the Stockton Unified School District to operate the Transitional Learning Center, a school exclusively for homeless children. The county supplies the teachers and staff, and the district houses the school, which collects students from nearby shelters. The children receive toiletries and clothing, backpacks and school supplies, along with medical and dental care. The school is designed to be a temporary arrangement, with most students attending for one to three months until their family’s situation stabilizes.

A complementary effort run by the National Assistance League is Operation School Bell, which has chapters throughout the state. The program invites homeless children to distribution centers where they receive clothing, books and school supplies.

Leanne Wheeler, CDE’s coordinator for homeless programs, says that funding from the federal stimulus essentially doubled the existing McKinney-Vento grant for assisting homeless students; yet about 90 percent of districts do not receive the competitive grants, which are awarded every three years. CDE has been encouraging county offices of education that have funds available for homeless youth to offer grants to smaller districts that did not receive grants but now need help serving their students.

Hunger

As paychecks are cut or lost, families are being forced to slash spending on even the necessities, such as groceries.

Hungry kids have a hard time concentrating. They may be fatigued, irritable or aggressive and have headaches or stomachaches. Long-term effects of malnutrition can include obesity, anemia and increased risk of coronary artery disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger, polled teachers across the country and found that 60 percent believe they have students who regularly come to school hungry because they do not get enough to eat at home. The teachers say it falls upon them to help students get enrolled in meal programs.

Before the recession, more than half of California schoolchildren qualified for free and reduced-price school meal programs. One in six lived in poverty, according to the federal definition; today, one in four does.

Ironically, many families living right in the midst of California’s breadbasket cannot feed themselves adequately. Low-income families often buy whatever is cheap and convenient, which is often loaded with fat and calories. Fresh fruits and vegetables may not be readily available or be too expensive to include regularly in the family’s diet.

“Junk food costs approximately 10 cents per 100 calories, where healthy foods will cost you 30 to 40 cents per 100 calories,” says Wanda Grant, the food service director for the Palm Springs Unified School District. Coping with escalating food costs is “the new face of food insecurity,” she says.

“We used to think of food insecurity as those skinny little children with the pot bellies,” Grant explains. “Now, we look at the child that is overweight. When a child doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from, and junk food or fast food presents itself, they will eat that. Let’s say they get home from school; they don’t know if dinner is coming or not. There’s a bag of chips there; they will eat the chips not knowing if dinner’s coming or not.”

Despite the obvious need, the CDE estimates about 3 million eligible students in California are not taking advantage of federal free and reduced-price meal programs—principally the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. Maximizing participation would bring another $2.8 billion in federal support to California schools and help struggling families extend their food budgets.

After beginning a breakfast program in Palm Springs, Grant says the district saw an immediate reduction in the number of kids going to the nurse’s office, an increase in attendance and fewer tardies—a bonus benefit of offering before-school meals.

Some food service directors are encouraging participation by bringing food to students in the classroom or quad and offering some of their favorites. The Fresno Unified School District, for instance, offers a chorizo and egg breakfast entrée, and chicken mole, chile verde and chef salad for lunch. “The students need to like the food,” says Food Service Director Jose Alvarado.

The CDE, which administers the USDA programs, also administers a federal grant program to put fresh fruits and vegetables before students. It’s easy to administer, Alvarado says, because the program is open to all students in participating schools, regardless of whether they qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

“The principals like it because they can try kiwi, cantaloupe chunks, sweet potato sticks, new things that students wouldn’t otherwise try,” says Alvarado.

Health

The shaky job market has caused more families to lose their employer-sponsored health insurance, while many others never had coverage to begin with. UCLA researchers estimated the number of Californians left uninsured for at least part of the year in 2007 at 6.4 million; in 2009, the number had jumped to 8.2 million—a 25 percent increase.

Without regular health care, children get sick more often. Routine illnesses, left untended, can escalate until the only recourse is a trip to the emergency room—which unfortunately serves as many uninsured families’ primary health care provider.

Low-income families may be eligible for one of California’s public health insurance options: Medi-Cal or the Healthy Families Program.

Medi-Cal, for families with incomes at the federal poverty level, has seen its caseload increase by almost 630,000 since 2007–08, which the Legislative Analyst’s Office attributes to the state’s economic condition.

Healthy Families, California’s version of the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program, offers low-cost health insurance for low-income families. But the fiscal crisis has placed the program in jeopardy, as the state is hard-pressed to provide the matching funds to draw the federal grants. Last year, the program had to be rescued by other health insurers who provided the required matching funds, and a similar scramble is expected this year. More than a million children currently depend on Healthy Families for health care.

Even if a family is enrolled in Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, it can be difficult to find a local health care provider that accepts those forms of insurance because the reimbursement rate is so low.

“That’s one way school health centers and community clinics can help,” says Samantha Blackburn, a director of the California School Health Centers Association.

School health centers—there are 153 in California—are organized as a way to address many conditions that affect children’s ability to learn and succeed. They are often the first to see students suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, tooth decay or obesity, and from psychological issues such as depression and anxiety.

“School health centers are extremely diverse,” Blackburn says. “Some are run by school districts, some are run by community clinics, some are run by teaching hospitals, some are run by community mental health agencies or other kinds of community-based organizations. Some target all the students in the school, some will target students in the school plus siblings. Some will target the whole community, and those are usually run by community clinics.”

In the West Fresno Elementary School District, a mobile health care unit sets up in the parking lot each week so families can see a practitioner without having to travel to town.

“Especially in some of the rural areas, it’s very hard for families to access preventative health care or even health care in general,” says Heather Gomez, president of the California Association of School Social Workers. “Even though the clinic’s only three miles away, when you have a sick child and no transportation, that can be very far.”

School health centers are unique among other forms of health services provided at schools in that the staff works closely with teachers to address a child’s overall well-being–physical, mental and emotional. Health center staff may see a child, Gomez says, and ask, “This child is obese; how is it affecting their learning? Are they comfortable in their seat? Are they doing OK in P.E.? Can we up their physical energy time?”

Oral health

Dental disease is the number one cause of school absenteeism, according to the California Smile Survey conducted in 2005. Nationwide, it costs school districts about $28.8 million every year when students are absent because of dental disease, says the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. An estimated 874,000 school days are lost due to oral health problems in California alone.

CSBA’s School Health Advisory Committee has produced “Integrating Oral Health into School Health Programs and Policies,” a guide discussing the scope of the problem and what schools can do, focusing on the specific role of school boards in promoting oral health. The guide comes complete with worksheets and sample policies, case studies and a comprehensive list of resources. (See the resources box on page 25.)

“Children with severe untreated dental decay often are in pain, can’t sleep at night, can’t concentrate and get poor grades,” the report says. “When children’s acute oral health problems are treated and they are not experiencing pain, their learning and school attendance records improve.”

For decades, the California Children’s Dental Disease Prevention Program has provided preventive dental services (such as fluoride rinse and dental sealants) and education to approximately 300,000 preschool and elementary schoolchildren annually.

Cindy Muhlheisen sees the importance of such programs daily. As a coordinator of the Smiles Program for the San Diego County Office of Education, Muhlheisen has seen children whose baby teeth are rotted to the gum line because of poor oral hygiene. But continued education over the years, teaching children how to brush and educating parents, is starting to pay off.

“I am seeing—finally—children are entering kindergarten with fillings and not cavities. And that’s because the message is getting out there that baby teeth are important” for proper speech development, she says. “[Parents] are understanding that in order for these children to eat and be healthy, they need to be able to chew without pain.”

Programs in crisis

Sadly, after 30 years, the CCDDPP has lost its state funding.

“To see these kids deteriorate because we’re not doing what’s least expensive, which is education, is very sad,” says Arlene Glube, who supervised the program for the state. “It’s a loss for the citizens of California.”

Expecting parents to pick up the slack is not realistic, says the San Diego COE’s Muhlheisen. “Most of our families are living in a crisis. Their big thing is providing housing and food for their children. They only deal with a crisis when it happens. Prevention is not part of their scope of work. They get by with what they have to do.”

School boards can enforce mandatory oral examination requirements for all children first starting school. Grants and partnerships with nearby dental schools that supply qualified students to do routine checkups and dental services, such as sealants, may help fill the need. Governance teams may be able to reach out to community service providers to place staff on a school site.

“We need to collaborate and share these resources, because there’s no way we can do it how we did it prior,” says Gomez, of the school social workers’ association. “Look at different ways we can increase partnership and collaboration within the community to make sure our kids are getting what they need. Just be very creative.”

Mental health

No discussion of student health is complete without acknowledging the body’s most crucial organ: the brain. The stresses caused by the recession have taken their toll on the state’s youth. Foreclosures affect homeowners and renters alike; frustrated, angry parents may lash out or turn to their drugs of choice for relief. Psychologists say that children may echo their parents’ anxiety in the form of stomachaches and eating problems, depression, aggressiveness and poor concentration, acting out in class or withdrawing from friends. Violence in the home has spiked.

“We’re seeing students referred to us that have very, very serious issues. They’re being cited for marijuana use, they’re getting into fights,” says Karie Brinker, a student health program manager for the Butte County Office of Education. “We’re finding that these students have longstanding addictions. A lot of them have straight Fs in school. They talk about being depressed. [There’s] just a multitude of issues where it’s very obvious that they need some much more sophisticated services than we can provide.”

The more severe cases are referred to the COE, but often they can’t help students who don’t qualify for Medi-Cal. “A school health center, to me, would help fill those [gaps],” Brinker says.

One way to cope is with school counselors and psychologists, but budget cuts have eliminated many of those positions. Without state programs for the uninsured and poor, the prospects for young people with mental health issues are decidedly uncertain.

“Right now I know our school board members are getting a lot of heat because they’re the bad guys having to make the tough decisions about the budget,” says Brinker, a former school board member herself. “But we still have our students and we still have the same charge we had when we had money—to educate them.

“Bottom line, if you’re a caring adult and you’re spending time with a student, that creates more positive change than anything I’ve ever seen. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the little successes because the big picture looks so dismal.”

Kristi Garrett is a staff writer for California Schools.

Hunger never takes a summer break

Summer recess is usually a welcome respite from the academic routine. But for many students, no school often means no nutritious meal that day.

CSBA, along with food banks, the California Department of Education and other educational organizations, is a member of the Summer Meal Program Coalition, led by the California Center for Research on Women and Families.

The coalition has made a concerted effort to get summer meals to all eligible children by promoting participation in the federal Summer Food Services Program. Although the meals must meet nutrition guidelines, the way they are delivered to children is up to local providers. Some feed students as part of their summer school program, others open their doors to any child under 19; some even send home sack lunches when school will not be in session the next day.

In the San Diego Unified School District, the school board decided to accept responsibility for ensuring children get fed during the summer. It overcame administrative hurdles to partner with the city to serve meals at city parks and other places children gather during the summer months.

The Fresno Unified School District invites farmers to sell produce at several local elementary schools. That’s very helpful to families with limited transportation, because in many neighborhoods it’s hard to find a decent selection of fresh fruits and vegetables within walking distance.

“That is advantageous to some of the parents,” says Jose Alvarado, Fresno USD’s food service director, “because they can pick up their child at school and swing by and pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables from our local farmers.” An added bonus: Participating farmers accept electronic food stamps.

The Palm Springs Unified School District recently won an award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program for “service in distinctive or rural/underserved communities.”

The district partners with a local nonprofit that gleans produce from nearby fields and brings it to a few school sites, usually on a Friday afternoon, where parents are invited to select the fresh foods they want. “We try to add nutrition education to the event,” says Food Service Director Wanda Grant, who is pleased with the response. “Kids that have never seen green onions now know what green onions are and have had them in their salads. It’s very positive.”

Grant encourages school board members to support their food service directors in searching out sources of fresh local produce. If they can, districts should apply for school garden grants and expansion grants for both the breakfast and summer meal programs, he says. There may also be ways to partner with other like-minded organizations to use resources available in the community: food banks, boys and girls clubs, charity and civic groups and farmers’ markets.

—Kristi Garrett

Coping mechanisms

Myriad resources discuss the various ways children are affected by the economic downturn. Many offer case studies, recommendations and sample policies that local governance teams can consult as they respond to local needs. Here are just a few that were used to inform this story:

Homelessness

“America’s Youngest Outcasts,” from the National Center on Family Homelessness

“Economic Crisis Hits Home: The Unfolding Increase in Child & Youth Homelessness,” from First Focus

“Elementary School Children: Many Change Schools Frequently, Harming Their Education,” from the General Accounting Office

Hunger

California Food Policy Advocates

Feeding America

Health

California School Health Centers Association

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools

“Healthier Students are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap,” from Teachers College, Columbia University

Oral health

“Integrating Oral Health into School Health Programs and Policies,” from CSBA and the Dental Health Foundation

“Mommy, it hurts to chew”: the California Smile Survey

“Dental Cuts Bite Children, Cost All Californians: The Case for Investing in School-Based Preventive Services,” from Children Now

Mental health

National Association of School Psychologists

UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools

Collaboration and leadership

“Building Healthy Communities: A School Leaders Guide to Collaboration and Community Engagement,” from CSBA and the Cities Counties Schools Partnership

“Educational Opportunities in Hard Times,” from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access

Easy link: Every online resource listed in California Schools and California School News is just a few clicks away—just log onto CSBA’s News and Media Web page and go to the publication where you find the citations. In this case, that’s the Summer 2010 issue of California Schools.