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Homeless children found to be lacking education

By Daily Bruin Staff

April 9, 1997 9:00 p.m.

Thursday, 4/10/97

Homeless children found to be lacking education

UCLA researchers find high eligibility, need for special
services but low placement

By Gregory Mena

Daily Bruin Contributor

Sometimes they are called the "invisible homeless" of Los
Angeles County, living in cars or parks or on the beach, their
number estimated at somewhere between 32,000 and 36,000. But with
the completion of a recent study, UCLA researchers are making these
homeless children and their problems more visible.

Researchers from the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences have found that a large percent of homeless
children living in shelters meet criteria for special education
services, yet few of them ever receive any evaluation or placement
in special education programs.

"Almost half of the school-age sheltered children in our study
merited a special education evaluation, yet less than one-fourth of
those with any disability had ever received special education
testing or been in special classes," confirmed Dr. Bonnie Zima, a
UCLA psychiatrist and the primary author of the study.

Under federal laws, children with special academic needs due to
behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, or mental retardation
are eligible for special education programs to help them maximize
their learning potential.

As part of the study, researchers screened 169 children from
emergency shelters for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and
psychiatric disorders such as hyperactivity. They found that 28
percent of the children, whose ages ranged from six to 12, showed
signs of a behavior disorder, 20 percent showed signs of a learning
disability and eight percent had signs of mental retardation.

"Because the main point of contact for homeless children with
disabilities was the general health sector, our findings highlight
the need for primary care providers to look closely for behavior
disorders and developmental delays when they evaluate a homeless
child," Zima said

"There needs to be a greater clinical suspicion for behavior
disorders and developmental delays, and more knowledge about how to
refer the children for a psychiatric special education evaluation,"
she added, noting that undiagnosed developmental or psychiatric
problems can severely limit a child’s educational progress.

But it is difficult to isolate the specific effects that each
type of problem has on learning, said Zima.

"The problems overlap. They all place the child at greater risk
for having difficulty learning in a regular classroom setting," she
said.

The level of unmet needs found in the study, which was published
last month in the American Journal of Public Health, corresponds to
the real-life situation in Los Angeles schools, according to Steven
Forness, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at
UCLA.

Forness, who co-authored the study, said that the needs of
homeless students are not being met because of the transiency of
homeless families, which makes administering special services
extremely difficult.

"In order to get referred (to a special education program),
children need to be in school for a problem to be recognized. Then,
they need to be tested, which takes about 50 days," he said.

"A lot of children will not be in any one house long enough, let
alone in one school, for the referral process to be completed," he
continued.

According to Beth Ojena, principal of Coeur d’Alene Elementary
school in Venice, the parents of homeless children also contribute
to the absence of diagnosis and special education for children in
need.

"I can not say how many times a parent knows that their child
has a problem but does not tell the school. I think that the
parents do not want to label their children," said Ojena, who
contributed to the study. "The children never get the services that
they need."

Ojena said that nearly one-fourth of students who begin the
special education process leave the school before receiving the
help they need to overcome their developmental or psychiatric
problems.

According to Ojena, outreach programs have had considerable
success in comforting homeless students and enhancing their
educational experience. Her elementary school sponsors an outreach
program, which pairs high school students with homeless elementary
students.

"Oftentimes (the children) are in need of and in search of human
contact," she said. "(The high school students) make very great
connections with the children."

In addition to outreach programs, the study concluded that the
education of homeless children could be improved by coordinating
special education, general health care, and housing services.
Researchers stressed the urgency of the problem, especially since
the educational challenges of homeless children are not usually in
the public eye.

"We found such a high level of kids with special needs. There
needs to be something done," said Forness. "There needs to be
permanent, affordable housing, access to psychiatric help … a
stable school environment, and immunization," Zima said.

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