why+is+being+homeless+a+challenge+amongst+elementary+school+students?

Emily Ali

= __Annotated bibliography, summaries and reactions __ =

1. Eckholm, E.Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools. //The New York Times//. (September 5, 2009)

__summary:__ This newspaper article starts out talking about a little 9 year old girl names Charity from Asheville North Carolina and her family. And uses her life, her family’s situation with homelessness, due to unemployment and foreclosure, and her having to move around resulting in not doing so well in school as an example The article them goes to talk about a total of over one million students are homeless this year, and how schools, districts and the federal law are trying to get a handle on things. The article states that the Federal government requires every district to appoint a liaison to the homeless who is suppose to identify and aid homeless families and children. The article explains the laws that the federal government has set. It also goes to talk about how some counties such as Fairfax county VA can do such things as provide transportation to students that are homeless and need help getting to their school and issuing gas cards and sometimes calling taxis at no cost to the families. but the article expresses that a lot of counties and school districts around the U.S. can’t do this or its difficult.

__reaction:__ I had a huge reaction to this article because looking up newspaper articles I didn’t really look at the content inside more of what the title and underlining meaning was about, so when I was reading it I was shocked to see that my county, Fairfax County that I live in, in Virginia was referenced in this article. Now going to high school in Fairfax County I knew I was privileged it happens to be one of the wealthiest Counties in the nation as well as the biggest. But I didn’t know there was 1800 homeless students in the County alone now, thinking about this at first I was surprised and thought that was a lot but then I remembered how Large my County was and realized that because there was so few and how wealthy my county was they were able to give grants and assign full-time transportation, give gas cards and sometimes call a taxis to get children to and from school. I then began to recollect a taxi outside my high school sometimes and wondered if that was coordinated. My county is not like other counties around the U.S though there are Districts that are not as privileged and have a lot more homeless students to take care of. This article really caught my attention not only because there was something to relate to but because it gave keen examples on how the federal and state governments are trying to help and used a families experience as a example to connect with the article.

2. Ellen, L. B., & Friedman, S. M.. Facts on Trauma and Homeless Children. //National Child Traumatic Stress Network and Homelessness and Extreme Poverty Working Group//. (2005)

__Summary:__ The National Child Traumatic Stress Network came out with an article on the Facts on Trauma and Homeless Children. It gave facts about who is homeless in America? And informed the public in this article that Families now make up 40 percent of the country’s homeless population. Within these families, more than 1.3 million children are homeless at some time each year. Is asked questions and answered them such as these; How does trauma enter the lives of homeless children? Trauma is caused by the experience of homelessness results in a loss of community, routines, possessions, privacy, and security can create Trauma for a child. How Can We Provide Trauma-Specific Services to People Experiencing Homelessness? The article addressed that programs can be important partners in ensuring that families are not traumatized again following entry into shelters and gave examples. And where people can get further information? Along with providing websites to further inform us on how to help in our community and country such as the National Coalition for the Homeless, [|www.nationalhomeless.org] Urban Institute, [|www.urban.org] National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, [|www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov] National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, [|www.nlchp.org/] Children’s Defense Fund, [|www.childrensdefense.org] National Alliance to End Homelessness, [|www.naeh.org] Health Care for the Homeless Information Resource Center, [|www.prainc.org/hch] ﻿and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, [|www.nhchc.org.]

__ Reaction: __ I found this to be a very informative and helpful article when I wanted to look more into curtain things for my research. It was short but gave the important root facts on trauma and how homelessness affects children. It gave me a lot of sources and websites and a summary article such a one I am very happy I found, not just for this research project but it gave organization that I could potentially get a job in with my major and helped me broaden my search with how I can help children, a lot of the organizations they listed I have never heard of and wouldn’t of known about if it wasn’t for finding this article and network for the project

3. Goodman, L. “Homelessness as Psychological Trauma”. //American Psychologist//. 46: 1219-1225. (1999). PsycINFO Database Record (c) (2010)

__summary:__ this article is about how most mental health literature on homelessness has focused on characteristics that may be risk factors for homelessness and in this article Goodman argue that homelessness itself is a risk factor for emotional disorder and use the construct of psychological trauma, focusing on social disaffiliation and learned helplessness, to understand the potential effects of homelessness. Psychological trauma is likely among homeless individuals families and children for 3 reasons: One, The sudden or gradual loss of one's home can be a stressor of sufficient severity to produce symptoms of psychological trauma. Two, The conditions of shelter life may produce trauma symptoms. and Three Many homeless people (particularly women and children) become homeless after experiencing physical and sexual abuse and consequent psychological trauma. Research suggests that negative psychological responses to traumatic events can be prevented or mitigated by a supportive and empowering post trauma environment. The implications of trauma theory for improving the psychosocial conditions of homeless people are discussed in this article as well.

__reaction:__ I agree with Goodman’s theory to a point yes not all mental illness creates homelessness, and we need to stop focusing on that but a lot of mental illness does create homelessness as well and those people that are homeless and became homeless due to mental illness need just as much help as ones that became mentally ill due to becoming homeless. Child and women especially more and more women and children are becoming homeless due to abuse of their parents, spouse, etc. and that’s what drove them to running away and becoming homeless and Americans as Goodman pointed out look at homeless people as being helpless and they got themselves there but we have to look at the bigger picture and try it understand that not every person in the traumatic situation of being homeless is mentally ill. There could have been another case of what got them to where they are today.

4. Fierman, A.H. “Growth delay in homeless children.” //Pediatrics// 88 (5): 918-925. (November 1991).

__summary:__ This journal article is from the Journal of Pediatrics on a study that compared the growth of homeless children with National Center for Health Statistics standards and with the growth of children the same age of similar income level but not homeless. The study showed that homeless children had lower height percentiles when compared with non-homeless children and when compared with NCHS standards. The weight-height percentiles of homeless children did not differ from NCHS standards; however, non-homeless children had higher weight-heights when compared with the homeless and with NCHS standards. After controlling the effects of potentially confounding factors that affect growth, it was found that homeless children from larger families and with single mothers accounted for the lower height percentiles observed. After controlling for confounding actors, non-homeless children still had increased weight-height percentiles when compared with the homeless group. The study also showed that the duration of homelessness was not associated with decreased height or weight-height among homeless children. homeless children in this study exhibited a pattern of stunting without wasting which is a characteristic of poor children experiencing moderate, chronic nutritional stress. They exhibited a greater degree of nutritional stress than non-homeless children at a similar income level than that reported in other groups of poor children in the United States. The study also put focus and acknowledge that Preexisting social factors in the families of homeless children were important in explaining any growth abnormalities. The researchers also looked at the associations between social characteristics of homeless children and their families expressed that the growth of these children is necessary.

__Reaction:__ this article I found very interesting to read and important because it focused on the physical rather than the behavioral or academic developmental delays of homeless children that most of the articles focused on. It was a study comparing the growth of homeless children versus children that aren’t homeless. I wasn’t surprised to see the results I didn’t expect that homeless would beat out any child that wasn’t homeless and getting a just even a slit better nutrition in their diet along with less environmental factors such as prevention of sleep that a lot of homeless children face.

5. Rafferty, Yvonne & Shinn, Marybeth.”The impact of homelessness on children”. //American Psychologist//, Vol 46(11) 1170-1179, (November 1991).

__Summary:__ This article is about research on the impact of homelessness on children. the article indicates that homeless children (generally identified as those in emergency shelter facilities with their families) confront serious threats to their well-being. Of particular concern are health problems, hunger and poor nutrition, developmental delays, psychological problems, and educational underachievement. This article examines the problems faced by homeless children in each of these areas. throughout the article the authors describe the extent to which homeless children are at a disadvantage, relative not only to the population at large but to other poor children. That is, the authors attempt to make us understand to what extent problems are associated with homelessness per say and to what extent they are linked with extreme poverty. A second task of this article is to understand how homelessness leads to the outcomes we document and to identify which conditions in the lives of homeless children lead to particular adverse effects. As Molnar and Rubin (1991) pointed out, homelessness is a composite of many conditions and events, such as poverty, changes in residence, schools, and services, loss of possessions, disruptions in social networks, and exposure to extreme hardship. Effects of homelessness on children may be mediated by any of these ecological conditions and by their effects on parents and the family system. Research on homeless children, however, has not generally examined mediating mechanisms. We focus on mechanisms that can be influenced by social policy, namely, inadequate shelter conditions, instability of shelters and residences, lack of adequate services, and barriers to accessing available services. A final section describes linkages among outcomes and discusses implications for public policy.

__Reaction:__ this article was extremely informative compared to a lot of the other journal articles I looked up because it covered and discussed everything that a homeless child faces day to day from health problems, hunger and poor nutrition, developmental delays, psychological problems, and educational underachievement and them the article took another angle and expressed how there are things that can be fixed and controlled such as social and federal policies and laws, shelter conditions, services and protection if needed. it was sad to read facts about how homelessness isn’t a choice it happen for many of reasons and children cannot take control of the situation they just have to go with it. and they are effected the most and can damage them long term.

6. Elizabeth Noll & Robin Watkins. “The Impact of Homelessness on Children's Literacy Experiences”. //The Reading Teacher//, Vol. 57, (2003).

__Summary:__ this article talks about how homelessness has an impact on children’s literacy and there development, understanding and background knowledge on reading. In the article the author suggests ways to support homeless children and support their literacy development. and the author address ways for non-homeless children to learn and to expand on the understanding of homelessness.

__Reaction:__ this was a short article but an interesting one the focused only on the academic achievement of homeless children and their development when it come to understanding literacy, the basic skills and knowing how to read. I found it very informative for the main fact that it only focused on the cognitive development of a child that is homeless and how being homeless effects a child’s academic achievement and can set them back. Especially if a child is homeless at a young age, children absorb the most information at a young age under the age of 12 and retain the most basic knowledge and tools to help them precede and improve, if a traumatic event and environmental factors such as being homeless and not having the right living conditions and nutrition it can impact there development in obtaining and retaining the most basic knowledge they need to succeed in school.

__ youtube videos: __

Trailer"The Life of a Homeless Child"[] (used in presentation)

"Homelessness in America" []

"homeless Children in America" []

"Increase in Homeless Pupils Poses Unique Challenge to Public Schools"(PBS NewHour) [] (might use this in presentation..its just long)