By Leah Wilkinson
Dr. Elizabeth Dinkins, dean of the Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education, is one of four women who founded a nonprofit making a difference in the lives of 5,000 students.
The nonprofit is called 5 for the 5%.
The name stems from the four women coming together in an effort to bring awareness to the 5,000 Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) students who are highly mobile or homeless (out of the approximately 100,000 total JCPS students).
Dinkins said the fifth person — the “5” in the name — is symbolic, as it is every community member who can potentially bring awareness to these issues and spread the word regarding available resources.
Despite the name, Dinkins said she believes there are many more highly-mobile or homeless students than the five percent reported, and that it can be difficult to discover a student’s background.
“This is something I feel like students at every level should [really know] about, because they’re gonna be new teachers, and they’re gonna have homeless kids in their classrooms,” Dinkins said. “And we’re preparing principals, and principals should know, so our whole school of education, I feel like, could help, kind of disseminate some of the messaging, too.”
There are students who are homeless and highly mobile in every school in Jefferson County.
Bellarmine’s student-run communication agency, NEXU, began collaborating with 5 for the 5% in the fall of 2019 in an effort to bring attention and awareness to the nonprofit. Since then, the agency has continued its work with the nonprofit, currently working on a handful of projects, including a social media plan.
“Any time we have cooperation between JCPS and higher education, every time is different, but this time what is so special about it is that it is actually something that is going to [result in] a partnership that is going to have a real effect on the lives of students.” said Giselle Danger, JCPS homeless education coordinator.
Dinkins said it’s important that college students be involved in working with 5 for the 5%, as the age gap between college students and high school students is minimal.
“It was interesting because I hadn’t thought about [homelessness],” said senior and 5 for the 5% NEXU project leader Audrie Lamb. “Obviously, you know people are homeless, but then when you really think about ‘Oh there are students that are homeless? High school students that are homeless?’ and we all know that Louisville has a huge homelessness problem [which] has to do with a whole lot of different social issues, it just kind of puts things into perspective.”
Danger said customization of the communication for each age group and the parents and guardians is key.
“As of right now, adapting to the needs of homeless students makes this program and this collaboration even more relevant,” she said.
Dinkins also said high-mobility and homelessness typically go unknown more frequently the older students become.
“If you’re a high school student and you’re living on friends’ couches, you probably are really good at compensating for some things, and you’re probably crafting a story [in which] you don’t have to tell people you don’t have a place to live,” Dinkins said. “I think high school students are pretty sophisticated that way.”
Lamb said she finds it difficult to comprehend how some students are able to juggle both their private lives and education.
“As a college student, I can’t imagine what it would be like to not only do high school, ‘cause high school’s hard, and [also] be homeless and experience homelessness,” Lamb said.
Dinkins said her collaboration with the nonprofit stemmed from her experience with another organization.
“The 5 for the 5% group came from the work that I did as a Bingham Fellow, which is a Leadership Louisville yearlong program,” she said.
Dinkins said working closely with another local nonprofit, Girls on the Rise — which is focused on working with girls of color — helped the growth of 5 for the 5%. Both nonprofits had one focus: equity. Dinkins said chronic absences (12 or more in a school year) and lack of equity make a huge difference in students’ ability to achieve.
The 5 for the 5% group came together organically, Dinkins said. “We were interested in equity in education, we wanted to help students, and then we said, ‘Well, let’s [help] homeless students.’”
Dinkins said two other founders of 5 for the 5% were able to find available resources for highly-mobile and homeless students.
“There are these resources that are out there that are provided through the McKinney-Vento Act, and because Jefferson County has a significant enough population, they receive McKinney-Vento funding,” Dinkins said. “That gives them resources to be able to support these students, and then through discussions with them we realized that ‘Oh wait, the resources aren’t being used.’”
Dinkins said the goal isn’t necessarily to get the students off the street or out of highly-mobile situations, but to help them recognize their rights within the school system.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 states the following:
(1) Each State educational agency shall ensure that each child of a homeless individual and each homeless youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as provided to other children and youths.
(2) In any State that has a compulsory residency requirement as a component of the State’s compulsory school attendance laws or other laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youths, the State will review and undertake steps to revise such laws, regulations, practices, or policies to ensure that homeless children and youths are afforded the same free, appropriate public education as provided to other children and youths.
(3) Homelessness alone is not sufficient reason to separate students from the mainstream school environment.
(4) Homeless children and youths should have access to the education and other services that such children and youths need to ensure that such children and youths have an opportunity to meet the same challenging State student academic achievement standards to which all students are held.
According to Dinkins, limited data can often play a role when it comes to the nonprofit trying to problem-solve.
“Collecting data is really hard,” Dinkins said. “In this day and age, one of the things we always say is that, ‘to understand a problem, let’s clearly define it and let’s look at what the data say about it,’ but if you’re dealing with an inherently vulnerable population who doesn’t like to disclose or self-report, then the data you’re working with is limited.”
According to Dinkins, many parents do not want to disclose that they or their child is highly-mobile or homeless due to fear of their child being taken away from them.
Dinkins said it’s just as important for teachers as it is for parents when it comes to recognizing the signs.
“The absentee issue is real for homeless kids because if you move around a bunch, you might have to go to a bunch of different schools, [and] if you don’t know that McKinney-Vento gives you the right to stay in your school of origin, then you probably think you need to move schools every time you move,” Dinkins said. “That level of transition lends itself to higher levels of absences.”
Dinkins, a middle school teacher for 10 years, said she can now think of students she taught who she believes were homeless and/or highly mobile.
“I don’t know that I recognized that fully at the time, and I certainly wouldn’t have known about the McKinney-Vento Act or what was available as far as resources for them,” Dinkins said. “It just would’ve been really nice information for me to have that…I was definitely working with [students] from a place of not having enough information.”
And although teachers should be aware, Dinkins said most can devote only so much of their time to looking for signs of high-mobility or homelessness.
“I think teachers, for the most part, do really a really good job with kids, but their jobs are huge, and there are lots of things they’re always thinking about, and you could see that pattern maybe slipping by,” Dinkins said. “I mean, a lot of absences might mean a couple of different things — I don’t know that homelessness is the first thing, or even high-mobility, is the first thing that comes to mind.”
And because every school includes these students, it can be even more difficult to gauge the numbers.
“The highest-rated schools to the lowest-rated schools — they all have them,” Dinkins said.
According to Dinkins, every school in JCPS has a homeless liaison, but that person, like a teacher, typically has a lot of other projects to work on as well.
Dinkins said she is hopeful the collaboration with Bellarmine students will continue to spread the word about 5 for the 5%.
“To me, it feels very appropriate and very mission-driven for Bellarmine to take up something like this and do their part to support the JCPS Homeless Education Office, because it’s a tiny office and it’s 5,000 kids,” Dinkins said.
Danger said she believes the NEXU partnership is an opportunity for growth in the Jefferson County community.
“Learning to take on a specific topic is showing [NEXU cares] and the commitment to supporting our community, so it means a lot to us.” Danger said. “To most people, it is a population that has no face, so what this project is going to do is bring this issue alive.”
Additional information on 5 for the 5%: https://www.facebook.com/JCPShomeless/
Additional information on the McKinney-Vento Act: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg116.html