Early Education and Care Resources as Child Care Re-Opens

At Homes for Families’ June Community Meeting, representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care shared timely updates on the re-opening process of child care centers across the state.

There were some key resources shared including interactive trainings and webinar series available free online; as well as tools and resources for families and providers to use with children. Please see below for these resources that have received positive feedback from providers and came highly recommended by EEC! You can find EEC’s powerpoint here, and an infographic with more about Head Start in particular, a type of child care that all children experiencing homelessness are eligible for, here. In addition, the department is continually updating their Frequently Asked Questions around the re-opening process. You can find their most recent FAQs document here, including information regarding subsidies on pages 16 and 17. 

Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness
8 interactive modules

Supporting Families Experiencing Homelessness Webinar Series
three-part webinar series features exemplary practices

Five Ways to Protect Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Experiencing Homelessness During COVID-19 SchoolHouse
Connection (SHC) offers five strategies for young children

https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/topics/family-homelessne
ss/ videos, guides, printable activities

We would also like to share some resources on early education as it pertains to racial equity:

• A report from CLASP on addressing racial inequity in child care and early education policies
• A Resource List for talking with children about race, racism and racialized violence from the Center for Racial Justice in Education

We hope you find these resources helpful as we navigate what Massachusetts’ re-opening process looks like. For more resources and ongoing action opportunities, please stay connected with us via social media: Facebook & Twitter.

Liz and Team HFF

Meeting Scarcity with Abundance, in Community

Hunger and homelessness are interlinked and the experience of both can lead to higher risk of family separation, being held back at school, experiencing higher health risks such as asthma, and developmental delays. National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is an annual program to bring attention to these important issues.

Across the Commonwealth over 90,000 children live in neighborhoods where over 30% of residents have incomes below the poverty line. This means a household of four is using their income of about $25,570 a year to pay for the cost of housing, utilities, food, childcare, transportation, and more. These basic necessities are often put in competition with one another, as housing prices continue to rise.

This year, Homes for Families will be participating in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week during the week of November 16th to the 24th. We will be sharing important information on hunger and homelessness nationally and in the Commonwealth.

We are witness to the ways in which families experiencing housing instability and food scarcity meet these challenges with resourcefulness and resiliency, creating abundance in the face of scarcity. There are many examples of how family shelters, and community partners in Massachusetts do this with families as well. At our November Community Meeting we had a dialogue about just this and key themes emerged around the importance of autonomy, control and choice for families. Here are some of the examples of where scarcity in housing and food stability is met with abundance, followed by some opportunities to learn and improve when it comes to the family shelter setting.

Promoting Abundance in Community Done Well:

• Donations when aligned with what families want: E.G. Asking for size, need, and following up to ensure need is met
• Gift cards
• Gift cards for teens and tweens specifically – gives control and autonomy for families to choose
• Taking parent wishes, making it beautifully wrapped
• Case manager collecting from families what is wanted
• Asking families what food they want for the holidays and if they want to help prepare

Opportunities for Improvement/Lessons Learned:

• The way staff receives donations- make sure it is family-centric and empathetic
• Families to have increased involvement with which foods are available for greater cultural variety, for general variety in what is served- pantries to reach out to charities for support in meeting need for fresh foods, and a variety of foods.
• Understand the impact of staff having toys visible- families will ask about specific toys; the impact of when families know what other families have received
• Vetting sources of donations
• Working on effectively managing and getting gifts out: The process, being understaffed, having few vehicles. Where could vehicle/driving donations be made by services like Uber/Lyft?
• Giving throughout the year, and shelters using gifts as incentives.

Whether it’s through a communal meal, being surrounded by loved ones, or a warm welcome , when we find abundance through the support of community, so much more is possible.

-Team HFF

Creating Safe, Welcoming, and Healing Spaces for Children

At our Policy Acton Team (PAT) meeting in September, we had a very informative and interactive presentation from Meghan Schafer from Horizons for Homeless Children. Not only did she provide a wealth of information on how family shelters can create safe, welcoming, inclusive and trauma informed spaces for children, but shelter providers at the meeting offered their own ideas on how to implement what research tells us kids need. Check out this Horizons video on effective strategies for play that promote healing.

Turns out that supporting kids in playing, yes PLAYING, builds resiliency, ability to cope with and overcome trauma, and overall healthy development in children. Here are some ideas of shelter-based techniques that came from our group of providers:

• making outdoor space accessible, inviting and safe: cutting the grass, fencing in the area, and making it free of trash, etc.
• maintaining a supply closet with age appropriate toys to be able to offer to families when they arrive
• providing staff training to understand what children need and to support children and families in a trauma informed way, e.g. children’s need to move around freely
• having baking ingredients on hand for families to bake with children
• giving children the space to build up trust to feeling comfortable to go to staff for a hug or comfort, and then staff being there for that kind of support
• facilitating opportunity for open play and interaction with other kids in the shelter

Members of our Homes for Families Consumer Advocacy Team (families who have experienced homelessness) also added that it’s important to understand and acknowledge that behaviors can stem from a child’s current environment and children may carry stress from what they have experienced or are currently experiencing in shelter. Tools for relieving stress could help, for example, sensory toys and activities. Access to academic support would be valuable as well, including volunteer tutors or book donations.

In addition to these ideas, we suggest looking carefully at representation in play spaces – is there multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-racial, gender fluid, etc. representation? Recognizing that all kids are different/look different, the room should reflect that. Making a space cozy and welcoming can go a long way too, especially within the context of a more sterile shelter environment. Color on the walls, comfortable chairs, and warm lighting are ideas to consider for making a space more homey.

Children’s Issues come up as a high priority again and again when Homes for Families asks families and providers to list important advocacy issue areas. There are many areas of focus within that large umbrella of children’s issues, of course. Safety is one of those focus areas among shelter providers and families, and in recent years, greater attention has been given to preventing child sexual abuse. We are committed to shining a light on this issue and sharing best practices as well. Darkness to Light provides a lot of resources. Here, you can find information for 5 steps to protecting our children on their website.

Let us know what you find useful, or if you have more to add to the conversation or best practices to share!

Liz and Team HFF

New Restrictive Child Care Regulations May Impact Families

Did you know that a lot of decisions that impact child care access and quality in Massachusetts happen outside of legislation, outside of the state budget, and outside, often times, of public view? State agencies that run important statewide services like housing, shelter, and child care actually have a lot of autonomy in rules (policies and regulations) they set that impact families seeking and receiving those services. While we spend a lot of time advocating for important legislation and state funding (which IS really important) we also spend time working with state agencies directly around how to improve the policies and regulations that they have control over. This is called administrative advocacy (a.k.a  advocacy to the Governor’s administration, since all state agencies report to the Governor). We always do this advocacy in a way that is informed by the HFF network of family shelter providers and families experiencing homelessness. There’s opportunity right now for you to learn more, and prepare to take action, on certain regulations at the Department of Early Education and Care in regards to child care services.

Following a change in federal law, some new subsidized child care regulations took effect in March, 2019. The really great news is that the federal law says that child care has to be authorized for 12 months at a time, so that families don’t need to jump through hoops multiple times through out the year to continually get their child care re-authorized. During the 12-month period, child care can only be terminated for a few narrow reasons.

However, some of the Massachusetts state policies that were issued in March to implement the new federal law, are concerning and depart from the intention of the federal law including:

• Requiring unnecessary reporting of information by families to EEC;
• Making relatively minor infractions liable to be counted towards intentional program violations or fraud (for example, if a consumer does not return a request for information); and
• Significantly limiting which education programs are to count as a “service need” or valid reason a parent needs child care. Some of the quality education programs subsidy holders are enrolled in right now no longer count based on the MA policy.
• Fees associated with subsidized care also continue to be far more expensive than the federal benchmark for affordability.

These new regulations do not impact everyone accessing subsidized child care in Massachusetts, for example folks with a Department of Children and Families (DCF) contract slot or a Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) cash assistance program (TAFDC) voucher are largely not affected, but parents accessing other types of subsidies like a basic income eligible subsidy for child care, homeless contract slots, or teen parent contract slot are more likely to be affected.

What are your thoughts, questions, experiences?

If you or someone you work with or know may be struggling with some of the barriers posed by these policies, please reach out to Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS). Regardless of where you are in Massachusetts, GBLS may be able to provide legal help and are interested in gathering stories to help in advocacy to change these policies. You can contact Sarah Levy slevy@gbls.org, 617-603-1619 or GBLS’s Welfare Law Unit at:  617-603-1806. If you may be interested in attending the next Department of Early Education and Care board meeting to share your thoughts on the policies during their open comment period, please let us or GBLS know and we will keep you posted when the meeting date is announced.

Liz and Team HFF

Reducing the Financial Burden on Low Income Children and Families

The Lift the Cap on Kids Campaign has been working tirelessly for the past two years to repeal the welfare family cap. Currently, the cap excludes 8,700 children from their families’ cash assistance (Transitional Aid for Families with Dependent Children), leaving parents with even less money than other TAFDC recipients to provide necessities for their children. While the repeal was included in the FY19 budget, the Governor returned it with an amendment that would have allowed the repeal, but then cut off cash benefits for thousands of children with a disabled parent. This amendment was rejected by the Legislature and a stand-alone repeal of the cap was reenacted, but in the end was vetoed by the Governor after the legislative session had ended. The coalition is still fighting to pass legislation (S. 37 and H. 104) to provide benefits to children without regard to if the child was conceived or born after the parent already began receiving aid.

The coalition behind this campaign, called Lift Our Kids, is also supporting a new bill: “An Act to Lift Kids out of Deep Poverty” (S. 36 and H. 102).  Since the TAFDC program began in 1995, thousands of children and families have fallen into “deep poverty.”  “Deep poverty” is defined as income that is below 50% of the federal poverty level (FPL). This bill aims to end deep poverty in Massachusetts by increasing the maximum grant amounts for TAFDC and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) by 10% each year until they both equal 50% of the FPL.  Once the grant amounts reach 50% of the FPL, they would be adjusted for inflation each year so that they remain at 50% of the FPL.

Families are often doing everything within their power to ensure their children are fed, housed, and cared for, but policies such as the family cap and grant amounts below 50% of the FPL make it difficult for families to achieve that goal. The cap on kids and deep poverty severely threaten the health and wellbeing of thousands of children and parents across the Commonwealth.

What you can do to take action! 

At this time, the best way for agencies to support these two bills is to sign on to become a supporting organization by emailing Naomi Meyer at Greater Boston Legal Services: nmeyer@gbls.org.  You can also  follow the campaign on facebook and twitter.

Shirblina Thelismond, Public Policy Intern

and Team HFF

Back to School & Housing Instability: Recap of September’s Community Meeting

What does back to school mean for families experiencing housing instability/homelessness versus families with stable housing? What is currently being done in communities to support families and school-age children? What needs to be done?

These are the questions that inspired the focus for this month’s Community Meeting. Guest presenters Paulette Mendes and Doris Beechman, Family Partners at Project Hope, shared about their work with Project Hope’s No Child Goes Homeless program.

What is happening now?

There has been a lot of success! Project Hope has housed more than 100 families since 2012 through their No Child Goes Homeless program, and was recently expanded to include an additional three schools. Both families experiencing homelessness and families with unstable housing situations may be able to work with a Family Partner through the program.

Collaboration & Partnerships:

• Partnerships with six schools in the community
• The Boston Housing Authority, some set-aside units
• Collaboration with large property managers

There have been a lot of challenges that families are facing as well:

HomeBASE:

• The short-term subsidy program was identified as a major contributor to long-term housing instability and families again experiencing homelessness after finding housing. (HomeBASE can provide up to $8,000, recently changed to $10,000, for 12 months to families eligible for or living in Emergency Assistance shelter).
• Despite the push that housing workers are feeling to use HomeBASE, it is “not going far.” First, last, security deposit and a brokers fee can use up a family’s HomeBASE assistance before they make a rent payment, and are left with a market rate rent bill.

In addition to housing instability, there are some direct effects on school-aged children:

Effects on Children:

Children in families struggling to maintain stable housing, including some with HomeBASE, are bearing a load and making interventions – many with lasting effects. No child should have to take on that burden, especially as it can interfere with their school and emotional well-being in so many ways.

• For example, seeing more than one family where high-school children have dropped out of school to work to help pay rent – including households with HomeBASE.
• Children take on stress, especially where parents may not speak English or be adept with technology and children help their parents with housing search, etc.

Homelessness and housing instability can seriously affect a child’s education:

• A striking number of housing-unstable children cannot read at a basic level. This is an injustice for even one child, but is far too common and especially for kids whose first language is not English.
• A lot of absences/not making it on time – many people in the room confirmed this for the families they work with (want to know more about how related housing instability and missed school are? Check it out here).
  • Transportation can be a major contributor – BPS only supplies T pass for families 2+ miles away, children close to 2 miles away who do not have the resources for transportation struggle to get to school, especially in the winter.
• Children with stressful housing situations are being labeled with “behavioral problems” and in turn being forced to miss class.

 

While behavioral problems and transportation issues aren’t always thought of as connected to families’ housing situation, we heard from the community how intertwined these challenges often are with housing instability.

 

What happens next?

Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George will be holding 14 education-based Town Halls across Boston’s neighborhoods. This is an opportunity to weigh in on all of the issues that come with housing instability that are affecting children’s education.

Continuing and building on opportunities for prevention and stabilization work to be done from the schools in the communities where families have relationships and access to people working with the entire family.

Taking a second look at HomeBASE and how it affects families and children: if you encounter families who have taken HomeBASE and continue to experience housing instability, please CONTACT US and share that story and connect us to the family if possible. Email Nilaya at nmontalvo@homesforfamilies.org.

School can and should step up to support children who may not be literate; meet the need for ESOL courses.

Investment in after-school programs to support families and children.

 

Recap: Conversation with DCF at the June Community Meeting

The Department of Children and Families (DCF)

This month Homes for Families hosted a Community Meeting where families, providers, senior staff from DCF and other members of the community came together for a conversation. About 35 people attended the meeting and much of the time was used for Q&A with DCF staff.

Thank you to the DCF staff who came to present and engage in conversation with members of the community, including a great presentation by Amy Mullen regarding DCF housing services and Health & Safety Assessments for families applying for shelter.

Amy Mullen, Director of Housing Services

Rebecca Brink, Assistant Commissioner’

The conversation/Q&A at the meeting touched on the broad nature of DCF’s work and what that looks like for families and children experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Below are some of the key concerns that came out of the discussion:

 

Health & Safety Assessments (EA Eligibility)
More than 60% of families applying for EA shelter cite Health & Safety as a reason for homelessness. DCF conducts Health & Safety Assessments to determine whether the family/children are at risk, and provide this information to DHCD for their EA eligibility determination.

Between July and March of FY ’18, DCF conducted 2,137 Health & Safety Assessments for families applying for shelter.

51A’s

• There was debate about how private 51A’s are, to what extent they “follow” families, and what the impacts for families are. It is unclear where 51A’s may show up on a person’s record, for how long, and to whom. Concerns were raised about the longstanding impacts 51A’s may have on families’ lives in areas such as housing, restrictions from becoming a foster parent, etc.
• Significant discussion around how families can ask for support, and the realities they may face when doing so. Folks brought up that there is no clear option for families to ask for supports that DCF may be able to offer without having a case opened. DCF stated that when a family calls “on themselves,” if a risk is perceived, the worker will file a 51A.
• Some shelter providers who attended voiced concerns about a new wave of pressure to file 51A’s even when the conditions do not warrant it, especially when the issue has to do with shelter rule violations.

In February of 2018, a point in time count revealed there were 973 families in EA shelter who had open cases with DCF. There was a total of 3,592 families in EA at the time. 

 

Race, class, poverty & DCF

• Both DCF and attendees agreed that race, class & poverty play a significant role in who is targeted for involvement with DCF.
• Many attendees were very concerned about situations where a family has fully completed every aspect of their family reunification plan, but is struggling to secure a stable place to live. The impact of race and class on housing create barriers to family reunification that specifically target people of color and extremely low-income families.
• Attendees stated that the Department has a responsibility to explicitly address the role of racism and classism in their work with families; i.e. how housing instability and other realities that result from institutional and interpersonal racism and/or classism unjustly targets families for scrutiny and a very real threat of family separation.

 

Mental Health
Questions were raised around how mental health is approached/perceived by DCF and what that means for heads of household who live with any kind of mental/emotional health issue.

 

Family reunification & the inaccessibility of programs like RAFT/HomeBASE
What happens when stable housing is the only thing standing in the way of family reunification?
More than one community member at the meeting voiced serious concerns around the lack of accessibility to programs like RAFT and HomeBASE for families who may not at that moment be in custody of their children — an unstable housing situation may be the only thing preventing a family from reunification with their children. The conversation focused on taking steps to create a process where families can access housing assistance when that can lead to family reunification.

 

Do you have questions, comments, or have a lot to say about DCF’s role in families’ lives and in shelter? Join Homes for Families at Visioning Day 2018 on Tuesday, August 14th in Worcester, MA.  

 

Authored by I.W. & N.M., June 25th, 2018

Putting Survey Data Into Practice: Part 2, Children

“If the providers understand the family’s perspective on things, they
are better able to help, are more sympathetic, and the family’s needs
can be better met.” 

— Homes for Families Consumer Advocacy Team (CAT) Member, 2017

In September of 2017, HFF released a full report on Family Experiences of Homelessness in Massachusetts. We are continuing to explore and build off of the survey data used in that report, and one way we are doing this is with this blog series, a continuation of the “Putting Survey Data Into Practice” document released in January. The series incorporates the perspectives of families and providers in relation to key data points, and works towards solutions for families and family-centered care.

Stay tuned every Monday in April at 10am for a new (coffee break) installment of this blog series!

Children

Important points from the survey results (page numbers correspond to the full report):

• 1 in 4 families surveyed indicated that they had additional children not with them in shelter (p. 10)
• Nearly a third of families with school-aged children switched schools at least once (p. 16)

We wanted to hear from families! What would be some of the best approaches to address children’s needs and support the whole family while experiencing homelessness? The HFF Consumer Advocacy Team (CATs) shared their reflections, summarized here:

How can we better support family re-unification and serving the needs of the whole family?

• Connect families with the resources they need, working to thoroughly identify needs across the whole family.
• Increase support teams who will listen to the needs of families and help prepare families for re-unification.
• Provide stabilization and support systems that work for the whole family.

How can we better address issues related to children switching schools?

• Having focus groups with parents to further explore the issue.
• Minimize the need for switching schools (placing families nearby children’s prior schools, providing transportation, etc.)
• Ensure proper support systems that recognize the effects that switching schools may have on the whole family.

Where can we do better by children and families by making needed supports for children truly accessible, while keeping families intact?

• More personalized understanding of a family’s whole situation, deeper than what shows up “on paper.”
• Ensure that when families identify needs, connections are made toward the proper resources. 
• Support families’ needs early on, before separation occurs. 

 

This post authored by I.W. & N.M.

January Community Meeting

Families, EA providers, and community members came together this month to talk about children’s issues:

One fifth of families who participated in the Family Survey had children with NO regular access to a primary care provider (PCP).

More than half of these children had no PCP at all.

Source: HFF Family Survey, see full report here

Maria Mossaides, the Child Advocate of Massachusetts, shared what the quasi-public Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) does to serve children in the Commonwealth. She described some of the challenges that OCA faces in ensuring children receive all the services they need, as well as opportunities for better cross-agency collaboration.

Keith Chappelle, Policy Analyst from Children’s Health Watch (CHW), shared some of the research that CHW has done showing how homelessness affects young children.

Research shows homelessness is the “tip of the iceberg.” Food insecurity and energy insecurity often accompany housing insecurity—all of which seriously affect families and children. 

What issues for children experiencing homelessness stuck out to families and providers at the meeting?

• Switching schools
•  Immigration + TPS
•  EA rules and regulations regarding parenting
•  No services, lack of supports while in transition
•  Instability, different impacts by age / development
•  Bureaucratic delays (i.e. for transportation)
•  Play space limitations
•  Responsibilities that are not age appropriate, secondary trauma
•  Behavioral / mental health counseling, for children and family as a group
•  Healthcare, especially consistency of services; immunizations, primary care
•  Undocumented immigrants not qualifying for daycare vouchers
•  Policies requiring job / employment prior to qualifying for daycare vouchers
•  Inconsistency across systems and regions for head start / early education
•  Understanding availability / accessibility of resources
•  Emotional / psychological well-being
•  Lack of services for pre-teens & teens

How can cross-agency collaboration on children’s health, services and education be improved? 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminder: there is no February Community Meeting—Cookie Day is Wednesday, Feb. 7th!

Join us for the next Community Meeting on March 14th, 11am to 1pm in the first floor conference room at 14 Beacon Street, Boston MA— all are welcome! 

MA Homeless Education, Part 2

Following up on our previous post on the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, here are some data points to further detail ‘the picture’ of student homelessness in Massachusetts.

Data collected: In Massachusetts there have been 27 districts that have received sub-grant funding through the McKinney Vento Homeless Education Grant in the past two school years; their data-reporting is included in the following charts. In addition, roughly 97% of school districts without sub-grants reported for the 2016-2017 data, compared to roughly 93% reporting for the 2015-2016 data.

The following data includes students from Pre-K to 12th grade:

(Check the ‘Sources’ links at the end of this post for the full DESE data set tables.)

Of the 21,112 homeless children and youth reported for the 2016-2017 school year, their primary nighttime residence at the time of their initial identification varied:

For the 2016-2017 school year in Massachusetts public schools:

• The statewide total of homeless children and youth has leveled off since the previous school year, but still is over 8,000 students higher than in 2009-2010
• More students are doubling-up than are in shelters
• While less students are in hotels / motels, the numbers of those who are in shelters, doubled-up, and unaccompanied have increased

• Some districts are experiencing very large increases
• By grade level, counts of homeless students are…
  • down to 1,694 among Kindergarteners (from 1,917 in 2015-2016)
  • down to 1,809 among 1st-graders (from 2,020 in 2015-2016)
  • up to 1,417 among 8th-graders (from 1,320 in 2015-2016)
  • down to 1,873 among 9th-graders (from 1,962 in 2015-2016)
  • up to 1,329 among 11th-graders (from 1,127 in 2015-2016)

The increases in students experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts must be met with actions for more funding and for further collaborative interagency efforts, both for reconciling socioeconomic inequities and to collect and share better data on current challenges around and solutions to student and family homelessness.

-McMillan Ilderton Gaither

MSW Public Policy Intern, Homes for Families / Salem State University

 

Sources / More Information:

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mv/

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mv/2015-16DistrictData.html

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mv/2010-15DistrictData.html

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. (2016). Ending Family Homelessness, Improving Outcomes for Children.