Report 2019-104 Recommendation 6 Responses
Report 2019-104: Youth Experiencing Homelessness: California's Education System for K-12 Inadequately Identifies and Supports These Youth (Release Date: November 2019)
Recommendation #6 To: Birmingham Community Charter School
To comply with federal law and best practices, Birmingham Charter should, before academic year 2020-21, ensure that school staff who provide services to youth experiencing homelessness receive training as federal law requires. Further, as set forth in best practices, the LEA should provide this training at least annually, and the training should include the definition of homelessness, signs of homelessness, the impact of homelessness on youth, and the steps an LEA should take once school staff has identified a youth as possibly experiencing homelessness.
1-Year Agency Response
After implementing our first school-wide training for all staff members in January of 2020 on "Youths Experiencing Homelessness" on-site with a presenter from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, we made a decision to purchase an online staff training program for the SY2020-21 from McKinney-Vento.org in order to better address the training needs of all of our staff members and also to be able to provide year-round training opportunities to current and newly hired employees. The online staff training covers the definition of homelessness, the signs of homelessness, the impact of homelessness, the educational rights and protections available to homeless students and the next steps once a student has been identified as homeless. As of October 31, 2020, all 305 school employees have completed the McKinney-Vento online training.
In addition, our school's Board Policy for "Education For Youth Experiencing Homelessness" has been updated to include mandatory annual training for all school staff members regarding the definition of homelessness, the signs of homelessness, the impact of homelessness on youth, the educational rights and protections available to homeless youths and the next steps a school staff member should take once a youth has been identified as possibly experiencing homelessness and once the school has determined that a youth is experiencing homelessness.
- Completion Date: October 2020
- Response Date: November 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented
6-Month Agency Response
On January 13, 2020, Birmingham Charter held a "Youths Experiencing Homelessness" training for all staff members including certificated (teachers, counselors, administrators), classified (clerks, paraprofessionals, security guards, walk-on coaches) and cafeteria staff. The training was presented by the Los Angeles County Office of Education and covered the following topics: the definition of homelessness, the signs of homelessness, the impact of homelessness, the educational rights and protections available to homeless students and the next steps once a student has been identified as homeless. In addition, we have held followup meetings regarding how to provide services to our homeless population on March 12, 2020 with our academic and college counselors and on April 29, 2020 with our admissions office, main office and counseling office staff.
- Completion Date: January 2020
- Response Date: May 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
Although the documents that Birmingham Charter provided show that it has provided the training, and that the training covers the topics we recommended, Birmingham Charter did not provide support that it plans to provide this training at least annually.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
60-Day Agency Response
A Homeless Education Coordinator from the Los Angeles County Office of Education will train all of our employees (certificated, classified and cafeteria staff) in the following areas regarding homelessness:
- The definition of homelessness
- The signs of homelessness
- The educational rights and protections available to students
experiencing homelessness
- The next steps once a student has been identified as homeless
- Estimated Completion Date: January 13, 2020
- Response Date: December 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2019-104
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.