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Homeless Students: Fargo's Liaison; a Devoted Dance Teacher

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Jan Anderson
Jan Anderson
Jan Anderson in her pantry that supports homeless students for Fargo Public Schools

We delve into the pressing challenges faced by homeless students within the Fargo Public School District. We have an in-depth discussion with Jan Anderson, the district's dedicated Homeless Liaison, who provides a unique perspective on the strategies and support systems in place to assist these vulnerable students.

The episode then shifts focus to Jamestown, where we meet Jackie Sather, a remarkable dance teacher whose dedication to her craft extends to five decades. Approaching her 80s, Jackie's unwavering passion for ballet and other dance forms shines through in her teaching. We visit her "Top of the Stairs Dance Studio," above a bar in Jamestown.

Interview Highlights (Jan Anderson):

    1. Extent of Homelessness in Fargo Schools: Jan Anderson discusses the surprising number of homeless students in Fargo, with a count of 274 in the current year, up from 240 the previous year. This figure demonstrates the growing concern around student homelessness.
    2. Definition of Student Homelessness Under McKinney-Vento Act: Anderson explains how the McKinney-Vento Act broadens the definition of homelessness to include various living situations like shelters, cars, doubling up with other families due to hardship, and more, providing insight into the diverse circumstances of homeless students.
    3. Challenges in Identifying Homeless Students: The interview sheds light on the difficulties in identifying homeless students. Many families don't want to identify as homeless, and unaccompanied youths often fear coming forward. This situation suggests that the actual number of homeless students could be much higher than recorded.
    4. Support Strategies for Homeless Students: Anderson describes the comprehensive support system in place for homeless students, including ensuring school attendance, providing clothing, arranging transportation, and helping with school enrollment and documentation.
    5. Impact of Homelessness on Students’ Daily Lives: The interview includes poignant examples, like a young boy uncertain about his mother's whereabouts after school, highlighting the emotional and logistical challenges homeless students face daily.
    6. Community Engagement and Policy Issues: Anderson talks about working with local coalitions, advocating for policy changes, and the community's role in supporting homeless students. She emphasizes the need for more affordable housing and discusses how donations and community support play a crucial role in providing non-educational needs for these students.

    Transcript:

    Main Street

    This is Main Street on Prairie Public. I'm Craig Blumenshine. Jan Anderson is the Fargo Public Schools Homeless Liaison.

    Jan, welcome to Main Street. Thank you. As I told you earlier, Jan, I'm almost sorry we're having this conversation.

    I think many, including me, will be surprised to learn that there is a homeless problem with children right here where we live and I think that's where I'd like to start. What is the scope of the homeless problem for students in Fargo?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Well, most people, when they think about homeless, they think of adults. They think of people that are living in a shelter or out on the streets or in their cars. It's very different when you're looking at with children.

    We have a law or an act that's called the McKinney-Vento Act and it's to protect the rights of homeless children and youth.

    Main Street

    And that's a federal act?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Yes.

    Main Street

    Passed in the late 1980s? Mm-hmm.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    And the first thing that it does is it mandates that every school district have a homeless liaison that is addressing the needs of kids who are experiencing homelessness. When you start looking at kids that are homeless, it does look different. We, of course, under McKinney-Vento, we use the definition of kids that don't live in a fixed, regular, or adequate place.

    So, of course, it's the shelters. It's kids who might be staying in campers. They're in the tents in the camp, you know, in the campground.

    They might be sleeping in their cars some. With some of our older unaccompanied youth, they maybe are sleeping in, like, in apartment buildings wherever they can tuck in under steps to stay warm sometimes if they've been kicked out of wherever they've been doubling up. It could be your couch hoppers that will stay with a friend for a couple days and stay with another friend.

    A few years ago, we had some that were sleeping in some of the colleges, you know, when they would go in the big open areas with the couches and things. They could go get warm and find a place to sleep. And so it includes those, you know, people that are in the shelters and those.

    But with McKinney-Vento, it also includes families that are doubled up. And we ask them, is where you're living temporary? Is it due to some type of hardship?

    Have they been evicted? Has there been a death in the family that they couldn't keep their apartment? Those types of hardships that they are staying with someone.

    So, in a regular HUD definition of homelessness, the people that are doubled up do not count as a homeless person because they have someplace to stay. But when you have a family that is doubling up with someone because they have nowhere to stay, it's very different because you're not just having one person sleeping on the couch. You could have five or six people moving into a, you know, coming to stay with someone that's an already crowded location.

    So you could have two, three families living in a two-bedroom apartment and, you know, staying there for a little while and staying someplace else. It doesn't include the families that choose to live together for economic reasons. You know, they say it benefits both of us.

    It's not that.

    Main Street

    What kind of numbers are we talking about relative to students?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    To students. Okay, last year at this time we had 240. This year we have 274.

    Main Street

    I'm wondering, unfortunately the problem is getting worse, it's not getting better, but I'm wondering too, based on the definitions you gave me, is do you think you know who all of the students are who are homeless?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    They always say, when I've gone to national conferences, that if you have identified 300, there are probably 600 because you have families that don't want to identify as homeless. They kind of slide under the radar. They're able to make it on their own and the kids can get to school.

    They can do all the things that they need to do. And then we also have our unaccompanied youth that at times are afraid to come forward and say, I'm not living with my parents for fear that they're going to be sent someplace back where they don't want to be. And so it takes, I don't know if necessarily that our numbers are getting worse every year or if it's that we're just identifying better.

    You know, we're identifying more. Last year we hit, was it, 336.

    Main Street

    Jan, do we know whether North Dakota has a problem that is maybe worse than other states in the country? Maybe not quite as bad, which is a good thing, but still a problem?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    It's still a problem. I don't think it's as bad as some of the inner city, you know, where people will say they'll open school up and have seven, eight hundred kids the first day. You know, some of the large inner city schools.

    It's not as bad as that, but it's growing in North Dakota and a lot of times people don't think that there are even any homeless kids in Fargo.

    Main Street

    Sure. Why might it be growing?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Expense. Apartments are very expensive. Houses are hard to get.

    If someone has had, usually one of the biggest barriers is if they've been evicted someplace before and if they owe money at those places. If they have any kind of a felony on their record, that can stop them from being able to rent a place. And there's still kids that are attached to these parents, so they still have to figure out, you know, where are we going to live and how can we support our families and it makes it hard.

    Main Street

    We're going to get into what it's like for a student to be homeless in just a moment, but what is your role, Jan?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    I'm the lead on a team of homeless liaisons in the district. I have four other ladies that work with me. We make sure that we remove any barriers.

    Do they have clothing to come to school? We can help with getting school clothing. Do they have a ride to school?

    If they live in the area, they can take the school bus, you know, if they're staying with someone in the area. If not, if the parents have a car, we might help them with a gas card. If they are older, we might do city bus.

    We have some vans now that we've started through Homeless Services where we're picking kids up all over and some of them, you know, might be moving around a lot so we can pick them up and get them to school. And the last thing we do is we offer taxi service if there's no other way to use them or if the vans are full. Those are barriers.

    We sign them up for free breakfast and lunch. We help with finding the resources in the community, school supplies, anything possible that can make it so that the kids can come to school. One of the biggest barriers that we work with, we help with enrolling kids because they don't have an address.

    Sometimes they come in, they don't have their paperwork, so we help to get their documents, their Social Security cards, their birth certificates, help them to enroll, you know, and it's a lot of education on our part as a team to working with our schools to help them understand it's their right to go there. Yes, you do need to let them in even though they don't have an address. So those are the kinds of things we do.

    Main Street

    Is it a transient issue too for you Jan? Do you see kids for a little while and then all of a sudden they are gone but somebody else is here?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    We have certain parts of town it seems like will be more transient. If they've been in the community for a long time they know more people that they can stay with and so then they can maybe double up with someone for a while till they can get back on their feet and so they'll stay in the area. Other people may be coming through here or they come here for a job opportunity, something happens, they get a job but it isn't what they thought, they lose it, they end up just leaving.

    They may have been homeless in the beginning or at the end but and then they're not here as long.

    Main Street

    Put me in the shoes of a young little boy or girl that is homeless but still makes it to school every day.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Thinking of a little guy this year that we've had that was down at the shelter, in the morning the van would go pick him up, he was afraid to go, not knowing if mom was gonna be at the shelter when he came home, if he was gonna be in daycare, if mom was at work, if something had happened to her. That's what a lot of our kids come to school not really knowing what's gonna happen after school, if they're gonna be where you know they're supposed to be. Our parents are great about letting us know we had to move here or we're gonna be here or something happened so that we can let the kids know and take them to where the parents are.

    You know coming to school sometimes with you know the kids it's like I don't have any clothes to wear, no clean clothes, I don't want to come in the same thing three days in a row everyone's gonna laugh at me. You know so it's making sure that we help get laundry detergent and some things like that so that they can be here. You know we always say at least get them to school because then they can eat breakfast and lunch and then you know if we need to you know send some of the things home so they have something to eat.

    Families when they're doubled up you have a lot of people sometimes staying in one place and not even knowing you know their spot to sleep might be on the floor in the kitchen. It's wherever they can put down enough places for kids to sleep.

    Main Street

    Can homeless students succeed in school? Oh absolutely. Tell me about that.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    I've had some my unaccompanied youth older ones graduate even a year early and go on to college. Some get scholarships. They very much can succeed.

    I've had some go into the military. I think of here in town we have a few that have started like their own businesses with getting licensed for child care and another one I think she's she I just saw her license that she got she does like a pop-up restaurant wants to do a food truck.

    Main Street

    Enjoying our conversation with Jan Anderson she is the homeless liaison for the Fargo Public Schools. Jan for kids who are homeless that do make it to school well here comes Christmas break or summer. What happens in their lives then?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Our job is to make sure that kids have everything that they have they need for school. So then what we try to do through the year is build the resources with the families in the community so they know where to go for help.

    Main Street

    And help might mean mental health?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    It could be mental health issues and during the school year also. Health issues? Health issues.

    We do even during the school year we do referrals to doctors, to dentists, for vision, for mental health. We have our school wellness facilitators three of the ladies that work with me I also do that job. So they also help work to get our families the mental health support that they need or counseling.

    A lot of times we'll have moms or dads will say to us we need to get settled first we have to get a few things just calm and once we're in yep now we're ready. A lot of our families they have a lot on their plates. A lot.

    And it's hard to juggle everything and everyone always says oh it's so easy you know just go get on people are on assistance or on they're on food stamps or SNAP. They're not. It's hard to be on some of those things because you have to keep track of if you make money you have to let them know.

    Even having the paperwork keep up with you wherever you're at so that you can renew or send in what you need to send in you know without getting the notice that you're gonna lose your benefit. We take a lot of pride I think in trying to keep our kids in their school of origin. They have a right that if they are living in one area they lose their housing in that area.

    Maybe they go across town to stay with grandma. We do everything we can to keep those kids in that school because at times we can count some families that will stay in eight nine ten different places. If we moved the kids schools every single time the kids would never ever you know they would ever just fit in you know it would takes too long to acclimate to a new school to new classmates to new routines and every time a child moves they lose part of their education time.

    Main Street

    How are teachers trained to help with this issue either to recognize that one of my students may be homeless or maybe about to become homeless?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    A lot of times it's just listening to little clues that they say like oh we're not staying there anymore we went to stay at my auntie's house or we're gonna go to the hotel for a few days or you know it's it's a listening piece and we do that even with like our registrars and different ones listen to little clues that they drop about where they're at or watching to see if like I said if they have the same clothes on every day or if they're coming to school without their homework their backpacks and you know just trying to look for those little things to identify them. In the classroom like with our older kids they don't always want us to know you know it's a it's a privacy issue too and even with our parents we don't automatically send a list to the school saying here's your homeless families it's we have privacy issues you know we keep that private we know the families talk to them we also talk with you know the people at the school so that we can work together and support the family.

    If all of a sudden they're starting to fall behind or they're working too much or they're bouncing around and not getting good sleep and so their schoolwork is starting to fall it's like is it okay if we if I email your teachers or if the workers email your teachers to let them know what's going on so that you maybe can get a little extra time to get homework done that they they're like yep it's time you know and so then we'll email and let teachers know the counselors and most that I contact are so willing to work with the kids and support them and they're like I didn't know and so you you can't always tell when a child's experiencing homelessness.

    It's a job you wish it would become extinct.

    Main Street

    Right yeah you enjoy what you do you work hard at what you do but you wish that you could be doing maybe something different because you have a great history of educating young people Jan.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    I think we serve the kids that are in school to the best of our ability we really try hard to make sure that they have everything that they need and hooking the parents up to the community. We don't have housing resources so we can't help them into an apartment we can't give them a hotel room to sleep in or you know those types of things. I think for us it's to build those relationships with people that have case management that they can help our families get into places to live and help reduce barriers and a lot of times because there are so many different things that are affecting getting the housing a case manager is very helpful because they can go at it from all different directions.

    Main Street

    Are there tasks force that Fargo has or that North Dakota has that you're a part of Jan that looks at these things and discusses these things tell me about them.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    I'm on that a member of the FM coalition for homeless persons and so. What is that? The Fargo-Moorhead coalition for homeless persons it's a nonprofit in Fargo-Moorhead started I want to say it's I ever since I've been in the district working I believe that it's been in place it's an organization where the agencies in town are members of there there's people from the community businesses and it's a place where you can go to make connections with what's available in the community to help the people out that you're working with your clients to find out where the resources are to make connections and then there's also committees within there ones on education so they can educate new people coming into the field on what we do there's one maybe on that's working on the long the long-term plan you know for the city you know working with that there's another one that's working on at different times they'll do things for the homeless vet and the people who have passed away during the year to honor those the people that during that have been experiencing homelessness so there's a lot of committee work that you can do within that a lot of people in the agencies in town are working with families that are experiencing homelessness trying to help them get stabilized it's expensive to be homeless and for them and for the community.

    Main Street

    Are there policy issues that you work on Jan that either at the local or the state level that you're hoping to maybe open some eyes facilitate change?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    We've done some work with like attendance policies and if we can in under McKinney-Vento if we can say that these absences these tardies are due to a child's homelessness they can't be held against them so we work with them on that and part of it is is helping people understand that at the state level worked with the team on how can we access documents for kids that are under 18 in North Dakota that aren't with their parents but they need their birth certificate to get an ID to get a social your Social Security card and if they're not 18 a lot of times they can't get any of those things a process put in place now so that we can contact the state and get those documents for kids if the parents are not around so it's things like that because if you have an unaccompanied youth that's on their own they're 17 they're trying to work they can't even you know in North Dakota they can't sign a contract to rent a place there's a lot of things they're not really eligible to be in a shelter by themselves because they're under 18 a lot of those barriers are things that we work with to try and help if there are

    Main Street

    parents who either may be single parents or both parents at home who may be in a position where they're about to be homeless or they've just become homeless

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    what should they do immediately we have a lot of people that will call into the school and let their counselors know and then they call us if people are going to be homeless if they're going to be evicted we try to refer them to the places to call where they can maybe get some help and stop the eviction and stay because we don't want more people to become homeless if they do become homeless the best thing they can do is go and talk to someone they trust at their school with their kids so that we can make sure that we make all the arrangements so the kids can stay at their school sometimes we hear that a family has they're gone for a few days and they're over at another one of our schools registering and we get the things like oh no no no we call the parents and say you can keep them there we'll help you get them back and forth and that's usually a relief sure because as one mom said to me she goes I can keep them with the teacher they they know they're friends that they love to be with it's normal routine for the kids and then the parents can spend the day doing the adult things they need to do so that they get back on their feet we have a lot of families that we meet one time you know something happened a job was lost or a job was finished you know so there was no work or a medical bill happened huge so they ended up having to leave their apartment one time things that happen and we can usually they can get back on their feet and we never see them again and then we have other families where it's more of the chronic homelessness where it's in and out and so when you're here over many many years you get to see the kids as they get older and older once in a while and I love seeing the families come in again that I know but I hate to see them also because you don't want them to be homeless I asked a moment ago about

    Main Street

    teachers and staff training or what they can do to help what do you tell students who all of a sudden in their classroom have a friend who is now homeless is there some help to be more empathetic to understand I think the teachers do a

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    great job about talking about you know different types of families and where families live I don't think the kids always know who's homeless in their classroom because a lot of times the teachers don't know because they look just like all the other kids we you know and we go get clothing for them we try to make sure everything is that they look like everyone else I think the teachers do a great job about just teaching differences and empathy for families and you know sometimes you know some parents will call me and we'll say you know my daughter's been playing with this one and I noticed the family's living in a hotel it's like okay you know and I don't want to disclose but they know because they've taken her back home you know to the hotel after school so the parent does know that and she said okay just wanted to make sure you knew who they were so you could help them like yep I do so you know and thank you and so you appreciate that yeah I do I do and we get calls from the community the parents when they register in our district whether it be right away in the in the fall when school starts or when they move into our area and they register there's a piece on there that asks if they're staying someplace temporarily and is it due to hardship and if they answer yes to those two questions it opens a drop-down asking where are you staying and there's some choices and what's the best way to reach you that automatically comes to my mailbox and my team will call and we determine if they're experiencing homelessness or not and they qualify for a program.

    Main Street

    John you told me at the top of the interview that this year's numbers are worse than last year's. What are the short and long term projections here?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    I would say if it keeps going the way it's going we're gonna have more kids identified this year than last year we've had lots of families get into housing as things are available and programs to help them get in so it's you know it's promising when we can see our families get into a place and we hope and pray that they can stay in their places because if they've been able to gain a voucher of some kind or to help them probably what happens has to happen in our community is we need to have more income based housing that where they pay they pay a percentage of their income because when you look at apartments if you have a family of three or four kids and you try to rent or even a house that's a huge amount it's a mortgage payment you know and if they're not able to buy I think it'll only get worse until we can get some more affordable housing for our families.

    Main Street

    Are there opportunities for the community to help and make a difference?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    There are we work through actually went through two nonprofits a lot that are just mostly for homeless kids Matthew's Voice Project does a lot with us and also Golden Drive and they're both nonprofits in town we have people that will put just cash donations in our foundation the Fargo Public Schools Foundation we've had memorials go there all kinds of different things and that's kind of our emergency fund when we have needs that like I said to someone not every need that a high school kid has that's on their own is school related the dollars we have in school are federal funds so it has to be educational related but I had a kid who once who said I think it was his theater teacher or something is gonna be in a play downtown I would love to go see it I was able to take some of those donated funds buy him a bus pass so he could go down get him a ticket and then he could go watch the play it's you know stuff like that the kids should be able to do that are fun.

    Main Street

    Makes a difference for them.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Yeah senior pictures Michelle Warren photography does some fun you know she does it free of charge and then we get the pictures and the kids print them off or now they just keep them all digital you know in their world but you know stuff like that that makes kids belong and feel like you know it's they're part of the school you know they do everything we try to make sure that they can be in activities coming up as prom graduation all those types of things and it's fun to see there's nothing better than when you get to see the kids walk across the stage and they're graduating.

    Main Street

    Jana people want to get more information about the homeless issue here in Fargo for students where can they go are there online resources?

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    There are you can on our district website there is a homeless McKinney Vento page that has my contact information so if they wanted to email they could.

    Main Street

    Jan Anderson she's the Fargo Public Schools homeless liaison Jan thanks for what you do.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Thank you.

    Main Street

    And your team as well and thank you for joining us on Main Street.

    Jan Anderson, Fargo Public Schools

    Thank you we love our job.

    Note: This interview was generated by AI, and there could be errors. The audio of the show is the official record.