Federal law may require that school districts identify and help homeless kids, but that doesn't mean they will--either here in Arkansas or elsewhere around the country. For a variety of reasons: The kids themselves may fight being labeled as homeless and exposed to ridicule from their classmates.
Consider the case of 15-year-old Kleontae Green, a sophomore at Central High who has only five minutes to make his bus to the shelter he calls home--Our House--and, understandably enough, he often misses the bus both in the mornings and afternoons. What the law says is one thing, harsh reality another.
"There are some people in this world that will make fun of you," says Kleontae, "just because you're homeless and you don't have everything that they do. There are a lot of kids that do that. That's why I don't let everyone know I'm at a shelter." What you're hearing isn't just the voice of a kid with problems but someone who's going to have more of them unless We the People take an active interest in his welfare and that of our future society.
To quote Georgia Mjartan, executive director of Our House, "It's never good enough for a law to say 'do more' without the funding. That's not going to be effective. But if there's money to do it, if there's money for that additional staff member to come back, then it'll make a big difference." Shame on all the rest of us, not these kids, if we let this chance pass Arkansas by.
Editorial on 09/28/2016