Brokering educational opportunity for homeless students and their families

Abstract

This qualitative study in a Midwestern US city examines how school and community-based organizations support homeless students’ connections to education-related resources and relationships. Drawing from organizational brokerage theory, which delineates how individuals’ chances to thrive are shaped by the organizations in which they participate, the study finds that brokerage practice unfolds and is affected by variables at three specific levels. First, social workers, teachers, and principals at the individual school level arranged for registration, enrollment, and other immediate connections for students. Second, school district-level actors played key roles in orchestrating homeless students’ transportation and educators’ professional development across the city. Third, a range of neighborhood factors – including immigration and housing trends – affected the ways and extents to which organizations identified and supported homeless students. The study concludes by presenting several implications for research and practice.

Keywords:

• homelessness
• collaboration
• poverty
• social capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The social worker role in Midtown is responsible for addressing wide-ranging social needs of students. Comparable roles in other districts are often carried out by positions such as homeschool visitors, community liaisons, and counselors.

2. Several different district-level administrators have held MSD’s homeless liaison title in recent years, including the pupil services director. This central office role has significantly less day-to-day contact with homeless-related issues than the MSST staff members.

3. In addition to its stipulation that each district is to appoint a “liaison” to oversee HHM student issues, the McKinney-Vento Act calls for all schools to have a “point of contact” who ensures building-level policy implementation.

4. The McKinney-Vento Act defines as the school of origin as the school students were attending prior to becoming homeless.

5. Midtown’s instrumental case study value does not suggest it to be an “ideal model” of homelessness intervention. Like most other communities, Midtown struggles with insufficient school funding, lack of connections within and between many schools, and a range of other challenges.