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Trump wants to put money for homeless kids into a block grant. School staff are wary.

Federal funding for homeless students has helped Metro Nashville Public Schools meet kids鈥� evolving needs for decades.

It has sent tutors to family shelters to help children with their school work. It has paid for transportation when families got priced out of their homes and suddenly had to move cross-county.

And it pays for liaisons like Catherine Knowles, who for 28 years has listened to what homeless families say they really need and tried to respond. That鈥檚 why the district has a hotel-friendly food pantry filled with items like shelf-stable milk, microwaveable mac and cheese cups, and just-add-water cereal bowls.

鈥淲e鈥檙e giving that recognition of: We really do see what you鈥檙e going through,鈥� Knowles said, 鈥渁nd we then have the flexibility to be responsive to that because we have funding and we have dedicated resources.鈥�

The Trump administration has proposed doing away with this dedicated funding. into a single, much smaller K-12 block grant.

, down from the roughly $6.5 billion the federal government spends now. Schools could keep spending that money on the students and activities envisioned in federal law, or on a range of other activities, such as 鈥減romoting patriotic education,鈥� or improving instruction in math, reading, science, and history.

In the current federal budget, Congress allocated $129 million to support homeless students with McKinney-Vento funding, . That鈥檚 a tiny fraction of the roughly $18 billion the federal government spends specifically on high-poverty schools. Liaisons like Knowles worry homeless students will fall down the priority list if schools no longer get funding specifically to serve them.

鈥淭here is such increasing need among students in public education, in general,鈥� Knowles said. 鈥淲ithout McKinney-Vento dedicated funding specifically spelling out our responsibilities and the rights of students experiencing homelessness, I鈥檓 just afraid it could kind of all get lost in the shuffle.鈥�

Why Congress set aside money for homeless students

The Education Department has said the block grant would give states and schools the ability to spend federal funds more in line with their needs, 鈥渨ithout the unnecessary administrative burdens imposed under current law.鈥�

have said they鈥檇 welcome education block grants. And some states, , that are seeking in how they spend their federal education dollars have said they would continue to meet the needs of unique student groups, including homeless students.

Right now, the federal government gives each state money for homeless students based on their share of Title I funds, which support students in poverty. Then the state awards the money to districts on a competitive basis, because the sum is too small to divide among all of them. get McKinney-Vento funding, which means many districts are required to hire homeless liaisons and meet homeless students鈥� needs without dedicated funding.

But school liaisons and advocates for homeless youth are calling on Congress to maintain funding for students experiencing homelessness as a standalone program.

In the early days of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Congress tasked states and schools with rewriting policies and collecting data about students experiencing homelessness. That work exposed gaps in support, and prompted Congress to set aside money specifically for these students in 1990.

鈥淭he dedicated funding was about responding to those barriers,鈥� said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection. In addition to legal protections, 鈥測ou also have to have somebody who goes out looking for you, makes sure you have a ride, actually makes sure you can get enrolled.鈥�

Since then, McKinney-Vento funding has played an outsized role in under-resourced communities that lack shelters, and 鈥渨here the school literally might be the source of services for these families,鈥� Duffield said.

Researchers and school staff also point out that students experiencing homelessness have specific needs and greater academic challenges than even other children from low-income families. Homeless students have , even when compared with other kids living in poverty.

鈥淛ust imagine: If you go to a school that has high poverty, you鈥檝e already been in poverty your whole life, and now you鈥檙e also unhoused,鈥� said Jessica Smith, a social worker who is the McKinney-Vento coordinator for Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools. 鈥淚t looks completely different than a student who just is low-income. Those babies need assistance, too, but our babies need just a little bit more of a focus.鈥�

Smith, for example, uses part of her district鈥檚 McKinney-Vento funding to take high schoolers who live on their own without help from a parent to visit colleges and trade schools.

In Tennessee鈥檚 Robertson County Schools, McKinney-Vento funding provides students experiencing homelessness with clothing that meets the district鈥檚 dress code. And recently, it allowed the district to hire a translator to work specifically with Spanish-speaking homeless families, said Jennifer Dusky, a social worker who also serves as the district鈥檚 homeless liaison.

The rural community 30 miles north of Nashville is a major tobacco producer and attracts many migrant families. As that population has grown, the translator who handles requests from across the district couldn鈥檛 meet all the needs of homeless families and still get her other duties done, Dusky said.

鈥淚t was a need, for sure, to have a dedicated translator,鈥� Dusky said. 鈥淗omelessness is not a comfortable thing for anyone to talk about, it鈥檚 very vulnerable and very scary. And then, of course, you add in the fact that you鈥檙e in a new country, you don鈥檛 speak the language. There鈥檚 all these fears and they鈥檙e very hesitant to talk with us. I totally get that.鈥�

When the district hired a Spanish-speaking translator who had experienced homelessness herself, she helped identify, and provide support to, more homeless children.

鈥淵ou can almost see the comfort just come over their face whenever they see her and talk to her,鈥� Dusky said.

But when the district got half as much McKinney-Vento funding from the state this year as it has in years past, Dusky got a preview of the tough trade-offs schools nationwide would face if standalone funding went away. Her district had to decide if it could afford to keep the translator and the person who maintains McKinney-Vento records. For at least the next year, the district will dip into its own pocket to do so, but Dusky isn鈥檛 sure how long that will last.

鈥淲hat can our program realistically withstand?鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat can our community support?鈥�

Congress will decide if block grant proposal advances

It is unclear whether Congress will approve the block grant proposal for homeless students and other programs.

The Senate Appropriations committee in the bipartisan education budget bill they approved Thursday, and . The House Appropriations committee won鈥檛 consider the education portion of the president鈥檚 budget until it returns from recess in September.

Some worry that Congress could repeal all or part of the law that authorizes McKinney-Vento funding to make the block grant legal, potentially leaving homeless students with fewer protections. Just a handful of states guarantee homeless students the same main educational rights outlined in federal law; most do not have any spelled out in state law, .

Smith in Kansas City, Kansas, worries what that could mean for her students, many of whom stay over the state line in Kansas City, Missouri, because there are no shelters in her community. When that happens, both districts share the cost of transporting the child to school, Smith said, but she鈥檚 not sure what would happen if Missouri and Kansas decided to spend their block grants differently.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have something that focuses on this particular population they鈥檒l get overlooked 鈥� as they often do already,鈥� Smith said.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

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