Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994 TAG: 9403170058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's a "part-time" job that keeps her on the go from early morning until late at night.
Some days, she gets phone calls by 6 a.m. asking her to pick up children at an emergency shelter and take them to school.
She makes arrangements for tutors to help the children with their homework after they return to shelters in the afternoon.
At night, she often works out arrangements for school buses to take homeless children to school.
Quill is the coordinator for a federally funded program that tries to keep children in school during their stay in emergency shelters.
The goal is to prevent the children from falling further behind and suffering more loss of self-esteem by failing or dropping out of school.
A soft-spoken, white-haired, former administrator at the University of Washington, Quill said the need for the program is greater than school officials thought.
When the Roanoke Project for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth began in January 1992, it was expected to serve about 30 children.
During the first 14 months, more than 250 homeless children and high-risk adolescents have benefited from the project.
Roanoke is one of 11 localities in Virginia with such a program. It is being financed with a $60,000 federal grant that will expire in June. It is uncertain whether funding will continue.
Students in kindergarten through high school are served. Most of the children in elementary grades are living in the City Rescue Mission and TAP's Transitional Living Center.
The program also serves middle- and high-school students at the Sanctuary Crisis Intervention Center, a residential facility for youngsters who are having conflicts with their family and schools.
"We have had children here whose family lived in cars or on the street," said Geraldine Reid, a counselor at the crisis center.
Some children have skipped school, sometimes for two or three months, before they are placed in the center at Coyner Springs in Botetourt County near the City Nursing Home.
About 12 to 15 youngsters live in Sanctuary at any one time. The average stay is 30 days.
In moving from their homes through emergency shelters to transitional housing or Sanctuary, children sometimes reside in three or more school attendance areas within a short period of time.
Quill said the children do better if they can stay in their home school with friends and familiar teachers. Every effort is made to do that.
The Sanctuary children are bused daily to the schools they attended before they came to the center. Roanoke-run Sanctuary has the funds to transport the youngsters.
But Quill said it can be tougher to arrange transportation for children living at the Rescue Mission or TAP's Transitional Living Center.
She works with the school system's transportation officials to change or extend bus routes so the children can attend their home school. But it's not always possible for bus routes to be changed immediately, she said.
No child has missed a day of school because of the lack of transportation, Quill said, but it remains one of the biggest challenges for the program. If there is not an adaptable school bus route, there are few options, she said.
To help the children keep up in school, the project operates a tutorial program four days a week at the Rescue Mission, TAP's Transitional Living Center and Sanctuary. Two tutors are assigned to Sanctuary and one to each of the other shelters.
The tutors help the students with their homework and oversee reading sessions or other academic activities.
On a recent afternoon, tutor Joanne Rogers spent an hour with half a dozen youngsters, each taking turns reading a chapter from a novel. The sessions are designed to improve the children's vocabularies as well as teach them to read better and appreciate literature, she said.
Another tutor, Dale Matusevich, said he talks with the youngsters and encourages them to stay in school after they leave Sanctuary.
In addition to transportation and tutors, Quill said the program can provide school supplies, clothing, family services, counseling and referral to community agencies.
Quill said there are other problems and barriers for the project: the lack of adequate space for preschool children in Head Start centers, and a scarcity of support programs for homeless teen-agers.
Head Start centers fill up early in September and have long waiting lists.
Homelessness and financial need can make it difficult for teen-agers to stay in school and out of trouble, Quill said.
"A need for school supplies, uniforms, school pictures, even graduation caps and gowns are sources of embarrassment to the homeless student trying to maintain face with his peers," she said.
Quill said there are more homeless children than those served by the school project, but she said it would be difficult to estimate the number.
It does not include children who stay at the Salvation Army's Turning Point shelter for abused women or Justice House, another facility for the homeless.
Quill does not have the money or manpower now to expand to Justice House and the Salvation Army, but she hopes they can be served if the city gets a new grant.
Other children, perhaps those most at need, remain unidentified because they are not in shelters, she said.
by CNB