SENATOR Miriam Defensor Santiago has filed a bill seeking to grant free education to children and youth without homes.
Under Senate Bill 2980, the Department of Education is mandated to grant funds to local governments, which will formulate and implement a comprehensive plan to give access to primary and secondary education to homeless children and young people.
“Education is a right, especially for the most vulnerable children and youth. Homelessness should not be a reason for children and young people not to receive primary and secondary education. Further, it is not sufficient reason to separate students from the mainstream school environment,” Santiago said.
To be able to receive fund, local governments are required to submit and carry out a plan to provide for education and related support services for the recipients.
The plan must include description of how beneficiaries will be given the opportunity to meet the same challenging student academic achievement standards as all students are expected to meet, and procedures the local government will use to identify all the recipients and assess their needs.
It must also have programs for school and other local agency personnel, procedures that ensure beneficiaries are able to participate in nutrition programs, strategies to address problems with respect to their education, policies and practices to ensure they are not segregated on the basis of their status as homeless, and description of policies and practices to promote school success for them.
Santiago said public elementary and secondary school must enroll the homeless children and youth, even if they are unable to produce records normally required for enrollment.
In the proposed measure, local governments are prohibited from segregating homeless child or youth in a separate school.
“The state must ensure that each homeless child and youth has access to the same free, appropriate public education, including public preschool education, as is provided to other children and youths,” the senator said. (Sunnex)