A woman in North Carolina is suing a school district, alleging officials forced her children to switch schools while they experienced homelessness.
The suit from the mother, identified as K.L., claims Gaston County Schools; Lisa Phillips, state coordinator for Education of Homeless Children; and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction failed her children when the district forced the children to leave their original schools while already facing the trauma of homelessness.
The 17-page lawsuit filed on Jan. 26 states K.L. was evicted from her residence in September 2023 while her children were students at New Hope Elementary and Cramerton Middle School.
With two children and nowhere to go, the suit states the disabled veteran mother switched both children to car riders while searching for steady housing. While the family remained in the same city, they were not located in the same school zone following the eviction.
But were her kids kicked out for being homeless or were they kicked out for being obnoxious disturbances? The title makes it seem like her kids are being kicked out of school for being homeless. And why was she evicted from her residence?
It’s nice how you immediately jump to victim-blaming with absolutely no context.
Because that was the point of the article.
Wholly irrelevant question.
I’ll explain what likely happened given what was in the article:
She was kicked out of her house. Her children therefore did not live in the school district. The school administration decided to kick them out of school for not living in the district.
Are they following the letter of the law? Probably. Could they be more compassionate and flexible? Definitely.
Did they not live in the district or did they not have a mailing address in the district?
I can’t speak for everywhere in the US, but where I live you have to have a physical residence in the school district in order to attend that school. If you don’t, you may be able to attend but you have to fill out forms and the district can reject you if they don’t have space.
They clearly already had space, so that excuse is out.
To play devil’s advocate here:
It’s hypothetically possible they didn’t. If the school is required to enroll every student in its district regardless of its capacity, the school could have been overcrowded already. Kicking out two students may still have left them overcrowded and thus given them justification to deny their admittance on residency status.
(To be absolutely clear, I don’t think this is what happened, but it’s also not an impossible scenario either. But as the school won’t comment now that there’s pending litigation we only have the mother’s word as to what happened, and even though we have no reason to not believe what she is claiming, it should still be remembered that you can allege pretty much whatever you want when filing a civil suit.)
I posted this as a reply to someone else, so copying here too. It’s not they “may” be able to attend, federal law says they must be able to attend and be provided transportation.
The point is for school to be one less difficulty for children in what is an already difficult event.
I’m not positive, but it seems like if they’re homeless, they have more pressing concerns than a bunch of extra paperwork.
The paperwork isn’t the point, I was just clarifying the process a parent would have to go through to admit their child to an out-of-district school under normal circumstances (i.e., not the one in the article).
Having actually read the summary now, my point is moot since it says they were no longer in that school zone.
The McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act requires districts to allow homeless students to attend their school of origin, regardless of the family having an address in the school district.
Assuming the facts are true as alleged, and barring any substantive evidence not yet known, this is probably why they’ll win their case.
They didn’t just lie down in the street and die like homeless vermin are supposed to do.
Big fucking /s for any morons out there
Yeah it’s great how you people take the care and time to listen and consider other people’s points, you’re so goddamn GOOD at listening and considering. Imagine how much I really care about what you think - and imagine that place I’m thinking of where you can stick your opinions.
You sound like the exact kind of person who would blame homeless children for being innocently kicked out of school.
Why do you use social media?
Congratulations, you’re both incredibly dumb and an incredibly shitty person.
And you’re the scum of the earth, so that still ranks me higher than you in every possible way.
I imagine it was because they no longer technically had a mailing address in the district. Would have been a nice thing if the school district had let it slide, at minimum until the start of summer vacation but they decided that wasn’t the priority. Better ten kids not get an education vs one poor kid get a good one is our motto apparently.
That’s a pretty lousy reason to kick kids out of school. IF that’s really what it’s all about, the article didn’t make that clear at all.
If anything the school district should step in at that point and offer to help the family instead of shitting all over them when they are in such terrible circumstances.
the McKinney-Vento Act. Already covers this. They are simply choosing to ignore it
You didn’t even need to click on the link. It’s right there in the last paragraph OP posted.
And that answers none of the questions I posed, evasion isn’t going to gloss over the issues I listed.
Idk where you are from or if you are trolling, but in the US they have school districts, and kids are supposed to go to the specific school designated for the school district where they live. It’s bullshit in this case, because the kids are homeless.