1. Promote compassion among the student body.
2. Provide sensitivity training for children who bully.
3. Furnish individual and group counseling for homeless students.
4. Offer social skills, assertiveness and anger management training for those students who need these skills.
5. Coordinate before or after school care and/or tutoring.
6. Present awareness training for school personnel on poverty and homelessness.
7. Facilitate communication among parents, teachers and other school staff.
8. Coordinate social services for these families.

An educator’s goal is to establish parental involvement, yet it is difficult to achieve since parents are often distracted and/or unaware of their child’s basic needs. However, with encouragement some parents will become partners in their child’s education (see Increasing Parent Involvement in School). When school staff provide a supportive relationship with parents, trust can develop. Some schools or agencies provide parent training and an opportunity for parents to further their education. Parents also may be offered job training courses, volunteer opportunities or part time employment.

Settings for educating homeless students range from total segregation to complete mainstreaming. In addition, some classes are held in shelters. Sometimes homeless students in public schools are kept together in a class or asked to gather before class begins in order to receive available services.

There are those who believe that special schools for the homeless meet the needs of these students better than a regular public school. They argue that these self-contained schools are designed specifically for homeless children and therefore offer more benefits. The services frequently provided include: transportation, meals, bathing facilities, storage space for belongings, clean clothing, shoes, personal hygiene items, health care, physicals, and information concerning pubic assistance. There are also blankets, pillows and alarm clocks for children to take with them. One advantage of grouping these children is that they know that they are not the only ones who are homeless.

Recent national studies, however, support homeless children attending mainstream schools. The authors assert that regular public schools are better able to serve more children due to decreased costs. In addition, they contend that the academic needs of homeless students are better met through the variety of public school course offerings. They claim that when homeless students are mainstreamed, they are less stigmatized by peers.

For further information on educating homeless children and educational resources for teachers and counselors, visit www.nationalhomeless.org.