Where did they go? Some Carson City students dependent on district's homeless program fall off radar during pandemic

For those families already struggling and living in poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought disparity to many in Carson City, including school children whose parents may have lost their jobs or have been displaced because of rising rents.

Underprivileged youth without permanent homes who are using transition programs began falling off the radar last spring, namely children and their families who relied on these programs for food and shelter. Among these programs is the McKinney-Vento Students in Transition services through the Carson City School District.

Peggy Sweetland, the McKinney-Vento Liaison and Special Projects Coordinator, said the 24-year-old program aids students and their families in finding stable housing, nutrition, clothing and any other needs like school supplies.

Her job is to educate the school district staff, and the community, on how to recognize the homeless population in our community and what we can do to assist them.

Once students are recognized by social workers and school staff regarding their living situations that aren’t “regular, fixed and adequate,” a student residency questionnaire is taken and evaluated, Sweetland said.

Students’ enrollment is good for the duration of the school year, and they can re-enroll in the fall if need be.

“This program is able to bridge the gap there and provide these needs for them,” Sweetland said. “Part of the goal of this program, the McKinney-Vento program, is so the students won’t go through these changes.”

In any regular, non-pandemic year, students and their families enrolled in the program are communicated with via telephone for check-ins by the school district and school social workers.

However, according to Sweetland, McKinney-Vento has lost touch with some students during COVID for various reasons.

“What we’ve run into this year especially with COVID,” Sweetland said, “(is) people losing their homes and apartments due to prices being raised where they’re living and they can’t afford it anymore or somebody’s lost their job due to COVID. That’s caused a lot more transciency than what we’ve seen in the past.”

Sweetland estimated around 400 students enrolled in the program by March in any normal school year. The current enrollment is 293, with 500 students typically being enrolled by the end of the school year.

“The embarrassment that some students feel — they don’t want you to know that they’re living in a motel or mom and dad are in the car and they’re at a friend's house on the couch,” Sweetland said. “Especially first time McKinney students, it’s embarrassing and it’s personal."

She believes the decline in students signed into the program is due to parents themselves being in transition and leaving the Carson City area to look for work, rising rental prices for apartments and residential motels as well as a social stigma. Some students may feel ashamed of their home situation and fear their information won't be confidential, she said.

Sweetland also notes that since classrooms have moved to virtual meetings and physical instruction time with these children has significantly altered, getting in communication with them has been an obstacle in the past year.

“They’re flying under the radar because we don’t have contact,” Sweetland said. “In many cases one parent or both parents have lost their jobs, they’re financially strapped, they don’t have a phone anymore or they’ve lost their phone and got a new number. We don’t know how to find them or where they are. That’s been a huge hurdle during COVID.”

While financial hardship has been a forerunner of pandemic disparity, Sweetland said CCSD has done a great job of supplying students with materials like laptops and internet connection for success in the remote learning environment at no additional cost.

Where initially she thought getting students access to these things would be a huge problem it wasn't, Sweetland said.

“The students are able to get these hotspots and they are provided the ChromeBooks, where we’ve noticed the problem is the follow-through at home," she said. "Parents aren’t used to being teachers, in many cases. Really it takes a lot of structure and motivation for the students to get their work done.”

According to Sweetland, the program is already increasing its enrollment since the elementary schools returned to in-person learning in January, including seven new enrollments in March alone.

“Those who we were unable to reach this (school) year, we’ll do an outreach, boots to the ground on the phone, trying to make sure everybody’s okay at the beginning of the year,” Sweetland said. “I think that’s totally feasible for this coming fall.”

Next school year, the program is starting with their eyes “wide-open” for those students needing assistance when school is back to full time in-person learning, Sweetland said.

“I think as we return to normal, and hopefully next year the high school will be back as well, that we’ll be able to better serve this population,” Sweetland said. “That’s what our intentions are, to level the playing field for them and to make everything better, so they can be successful in school.”

To learn more about the McKinney-Vento Students in Transition program and to fill out the student residency questionnaire, either in English or Spanish, click here.

2020 Holiday with a Hero altered due to COVID but meets giving goal

Another community organization looking to bridge the gap of homelessness and poverty in Carson City also felt the effects of COVID in the past year. Holiday With a Hero, founded by Daniel and Meliah Gonzales, has held their Wal-Mart shopping event for K-8 students annually in December, until 2020.

“I think we’re really lucky to be honest,” Meliah Gonzales said. “Carson City knows we’re a program that’s providing a service to these kids and doing well. People are supportive of us at this point regardless of the pandemic. Carson City knows that these children need our help and that they’re deserving of that.”

Since 2004, the Gonzales’ have organized this event that has overcome major growth spurts over the years. What started as just police officers and 40 kids, is now a plethora of heroes from the community and 240 kids served, Gonzales said.

“Homeless children are very hard to just walk away from,” said secretary Cathleen Allison. “People are very passionate about supporting our cause because they care about the kids in this community and they’ve seen this program for 17 years. We’ve been very fortunate with the service groups and the businesses who set aside (money) every year to donate to us.”

Like many organizations and local nonprofits, Holiday With a Hero was forced to pivot their shopping operations in December 2020.

Allison said normally, a child who is identified through the McKinney-Vento Students in Transition program, is paired with a public service person and handed a $100 Wal-Mart gift card to buy items of need and shop for Christmas gifts for themselves and families.

“We had multiple meetings with the school district to make sure we were meeting their COVID concerns,” Allison said. “We had school resource officers and probation officers who met with the kids one-on-one. The social workers on all campuses were huge this year because they help coordinate all of this.”

“Wish-lists” were curated with childrens’ sizes and favorite colors before shopping sessions were completed during odd hours on weeknights and weekends, Allison said, as to comply with COVID social distancing guidelines.

“It was really hard this year without kids because it’s so much more fun when you get to have their involvement and let them see how that all works,” Allison said. “We just had to make decisions as shoppers.”

Holiday With a Hero, in partnership with the Downtown Business Association, would have hosted their 6th annual Holiday Crawl in 2020 as their major fundraiser for the shopping event. While the annual bar and restaurant-hopping event didn’t take place, Allison said fundraising efforts were as successful as ever.

“People really have fun at our (Crawl) event,” said founder Lt. Daniel Gonzales. “That being the precursor, then going into the actual event, where we’re able to get together. That's the big thing, having the helicopter, having Santa, having all the first responders, having the military, having everybody under one roof again. It’s that experience for the kids.”

With a typical goal of $25,000 a year, Holiday With a Hero has raised approximately $255,400 to give in gift cards since the 2010/2011 school year.

“We were very fortunate that (COVID) did not hinder the number of students we were able to serve,” Allison said. “That’s what this community has done. We’re the conduit, but the community has done that.”

Allison said Holiday With a Hero has seen past recipients of the program volunteer at the event who want to give back as adults in their careers such as police officers and bank tellers.

“One of the main goals of this organization is to have these students have a positive interaction with a public safety person,” Allison said. “It’s not just to make sure they have gifts under the tree, because of their life situation, sometimes their experiences with cops and firemen aren’t always in the greatest of circumstances.”

To learn more about Holiday With a Hero, interest in volunteering, or donating to the cause can be found here.