Schools increase social services as poverty rises

from The Grand Rapids Press

By Beth Loechler
The Grand Rapids Press

Every day, DeeDee Johnson is reminded she is a child of poverty.

Her mother, stepfather and two little brothers sold or packed up what they owned and moved to Washington state in September in search of opportunity and a decent paycheck. They left 10-year-old DeeDee in the care of Sandy Pelkey, a woman she calls "grandma," so she could continue in school and have a roof over her head.

"It's very depressing. I feel like I'm being torn two ways," said DeeDee, a fifth-grader at Huntington Woods Elementary in Wyoming.

But she talks to her mom most every day, receiving promises that they'll be reunited soon.

"She's a good student, but I see her struggling, mostly with her emotions," said Pelkey, a 52-year-old daycare provider and mother of eight who has known DeeDee since she was a toddler.

"DeeDee gets a lot of headaches and stomach aches. She's distracted. Wouldn't you be?"

DeeDee has lived in the close-to-he-edge world of poverty ever since she can remember. She is not alone.

Without exception, every public school district in Kent and Ottawa counties has seen an increase in the number of poor children in classrooms over the past seven years. The changes have forced teachers to rethink how they teach and schools to reach out in ways they had not anticipated even a decade ago.

Today, at least one in three students -- 51,500 children -- at traditional public schools in Kent and Ottawa counties are poor. In Grand Rapids and Kelloggsville schools, four of every five live in poverty, according to federal statistics on students who get free or reduced-price school lunches.

Also, nearly two-thirds of the districts have seen the number of poor students increase by 38 percent or more since 2000.

"The state is in a recession, and the people who get hurt the most are the children who need the most. It's a travesty," said Susan Neuman, a University of Michigan professor and former assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education under President Bush.

At DeeDee's school, 54 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. In a family of four, that means earnings of $20,650 a year or less. When the school opened 15 years ago, a mere 8 percent of the students received subsidized lunches.

"The classroom has changed," acknowledged Huntington Woods kindergarten teacher Lani Dykhouse.

More often than not, poor children come to school with less background knowledge and more limited vocabularies, she said. Their listening skills aren't strong. They haven't been routinely talked to or read to or exposed to lots of books.

"Sometimes it feels like I opened up a box, pulled a child out and set them in kindergarten," Dykhouse said. "I don't remember, even five years ago, children being that disadvantaged."

Grand Rapids Public Schools, historically a high-poverty district, has gone from 66 percent to 81 percent poor students in the past seven years, forcing schools to become "full-service, one-stop social service agencies," Superintendent Bernard Taylor said. "We're not just dealing with education."

Poor children aren't just attending traditional public schools. National Heritage Academies, which operates 35 charter schools in Michigan, says 51 percent of its K-8 students are poor.

Also, two of the Grand Rapids Christian elementary schools have poverty rates of 30 percent or higher, Superintendent Tom DeJonge said. Most of the students receive significant financial aid for tuition.

What schools can do

Schools can't do much about the transient nature of poor families or the stress they feel amid paltry paychecks, eviction notices, steep utility bills and insufficient cash for food and clothes. Dykhouse and others encourage parent involvement, but often come up empty.

The obvious response is longer school days, all-day every-day kindergarten, more and better preschool programs, after-school tutoring and smaller class sizes, educators said.

But those fixes cost money, and the schools with high percentages of poor kids are most often poor themselves, said Neuman, who has written on the link between poor kids and poor grades.

"It's a very unfortunate correlation. It's a relationship that is unfair to the teachers in those schools," she said. Still, the situation isn't likely to change anytime soon, "so we better make smarter decisions with our existing funds."

Some funding comes through grants for at-risk students and the federal Title I program. Grand Rapids, for example, received millions in 1999 to limit most elementary classrooms to 19 students. Those grants expired in 2003.

But many elementary schools waste Title I dollars on classroom aides or computer labs, Neuman said.

"Better to get a highly qualified teacher," she said. "That would make a difference. And do we really need that computer lab? If kids can't read, they can't use a computer effectively. Get rid of it and get more books."

Some steps taken

Grand Rapids has not ditched the computer labs, but it has obtained more books. The Student Advancement Foundation, its fund-raising arm, updated all 47 school libraries since 2004 with $1.6 million in donations.

Huntington Woods has a "junior first grade" for those who have finished kindergarten but aren't yet ready for first grade. The school also has before-school and after-school "homework clubs."

"That's been beneficial," Principal Andrea van der Laan said. "When parents are more in survival mode, less homework is getting done."

Godwin Heights, Grand Rapids and Holland offer all-day, every-day kindergarten, even though districts receive the same amount of state aid for full-time and part-time programs.

Schools have traveling dentists and partnerships with hospitals and health clinics. They keep extra coats, boots and mittens on hand.

"We recognize that we need to do everything possible to keep kids in school and support them," said Grand Rapids schools spokesman John Helmholdt.

"The key is keeping the focus on our schools and providing support services to ensure children are healthy, rested, clothed, fed and ready for school," he said.

Wyoming Superintendent Jon Felske pointed out that schools pass along "hidden costs" to parents. He encourages teachers to keep these amounts to a minimum.

Poster board for a homework project or a stop at McDonald's after a field trip may be tough on a poor family. Driver's education is no longer free, nor is attendance at most high school sporting events.

"I know of families where the parents rotate who goes to games because it is just too expensive for both parents (to buy tickets). Or they can't come at all. And how does that make the kids feel?" Felske said.

Kentwood has put a focus on learning the language of poverty. Author Ruby Payne has visited the district three times since 2001 to lead workshops on understanding poverty and how it affects children. She contends that the "casual language of poverty" often is viewed as ignorant or disrespectful; poor students must be taught the language and rules of the middle class.

"All teachers have a college degree and are firmly entrenched in the middle class. Yet when we look at who we serve in Kentwood, 48 percent of students come from poverty," Superintendent Scott Palczewski said.

"If I don't know where you're coming from, how in the world am I going to develop a strong positive relationship?" he added.

The complexity of poverty can't be broken down and understood in a single workshop, so teachers also must be quick studies and learn on the job, Taylor said.

"We must still say focused on what we have to do. These issues still take a back seat to academic achievement."

The relationship is vital, Taylor added, "because these children come to rely on their teacher as the one person who will be in the same place, at the same time, doing the same thing every day. That sense of security can't be underestimated."

Back in Wyoming

Living with Pelkey has brought a degree of stability to DeeDee's days.

Pelkey knows what it's like to be poor because she lived on public assistance for a time years ago. A few of the children she watches during the day or after school also are in poverty.

"It's just really rough out there for some parents," Pelkey said.

She volunteered to keep DeeDee for free, and has spent a lot of time watching over kids whose parents couldn't pay the entire daycare bill.

"I have so many losses, I just work to survive," she said. "I look at it as a way to make a difference."

So she shops the clearance racks and garage sales. She recently splurged on new Easter dresses for DeeDee and a granddaughter "because that's important to the kids." She is thinking about spending her refund check from the IRS on a plane ticket west for DeeDee.

DeeDee hopes to start middle school in Washington next fall. Her mom is working, but the family continues to struggle financially. They are living in a shelter.

Pelkey doesn't want DeeDee to leave. She worries about the transition and the financial well-being of Dee- Dee's family.