COMPASS Initiative (COMmunity Partnerships for Access and SuccesS)
Supports local efforts to design and implement integrated services.

Healthy Families
Grants support services to prenatal women and children from age three months to age five years. Currently there are six sites. The program is funded from a mix of federal Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant and state general revenue funds.

Child Care Subsidy Program
The Child Care Subsidy program enables low and moderate income families to afford child care while parents are working or in training. It provides a subsidy for child care payments for eligible families. Municipalities or unincorporated communities with licensed child care facilities may apply to the program if a community agency can demonstrate the administrative capacity to manage the program. The program is subject to annual state and federal legislative appropriations. The funding level is about $13.8 million. There are approximately 25 communities participating, serving about 2,900 children per month.

Family Resource Centers
Family Resource Centers in Alaska offer family literacy, parenting groups, and other types of services to prevent child abuse; one grantee focuses specifically on infants and toddlers. Children's Trust Fund supported grants in 13 sites in 1997.

*Smart Start
An integrated initiative to promote children's health care coverage, provide increased funding for prevention programs and strengthen child protection programs. Smart Start has an initial goal of adding $11 million in state dollars to various early care and education, infant learning, family support, and specialized prevention programs (such as fetal alcohol syndrome prevention) as well as child protection efforts.

Head Start
The Alaska Head Start program is administered from Juneau. It is subject to annual appropriation by the Legislature. The funding level for FY95 was $5.9 million. The 13 grantee agencies operate programs in 88 communities in the state.

Alaska's Partnership 2000 Plan for Education: Family, School, Community Network (FSCN)
The Alaska Department of Education, NEA Alaska, the Alaska PTA, and the Association of Alaska School Boards have joined Partnership 2000 Schools as a model which supports many types of parent involvement in learning. It is developed by the Center on Families, Communities, Schools and Children's Learning at Johns Hopkins University. The model supports six types of parent and family involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with communities to improve schools and learning opportunities. Presently, eight school districts are involved in Partnership 2000, with several of these districts participating as pilot sites. Every year new schools will have the opportunity to sign up for this Partnership, and to learn from the pilot schools.

Alaska Children's Cabinet
The Children's Cabinet, appointed in the spring of 1995 by Governor Tony Knowles, consists of the Lieutenant Governor, state Attorney General, state Budget Director, and the Commissioners of Health and Social Services, Education, Corrections, Public Safety, and Community and Regional Affairs. A special assistant in the Department of Community and Regional Affairs staffs it.

The goal of the Children's Cabinet is supporting the developmental stages of children, beginning with 0-6 years of age; promoting local, collaborative, and measurable initiatives. Beginning with a $6 million appropriation by the state legislature, the Trust is designed to promote and support initiatives to strengthen families and protect children.

In November 1996, the Governor's Conference on Youth and Justice released a report on how to deal more effectively with young people in the juvenile justice system and to prevent them from entering the system in the first place. Alaska held its first-ever statewide Education Summit in October 1996. Governor Knowles, Education Commissioner Shirley Holloway, and ARCO Alaska President Ken Thompson met with 40 school districts and education organizations to begin designing community action plans to improve student learning. Local summits were held around Alaska in winter and spring 1997.

Grants were awarded in 1997 from the interest on the trust account to community-based child abuse and neglect prevention projects. As one of the three states chosen in 1996 to participate in the Danforth Foundation's Policymakers' Program to promote integrated health and education services, Alaska is moving forward to implement plans developed at the Institute.

The Children's Cabinet is currently developing an integrated plan that will include welfare reform-related service issues, including child care, jobs, and family support.

Contact: Shari Paul, Special Assistant to the Children's Cabinet, PO Box 112100, Juneau, AK 99811-2100, (907) 465-4870 - voice, (907) 465-8638 - fax.

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Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children

Alaska AEYC , 1805 Bunker St., Suite 103
Anchorage, AK 99501-2429
(907) 274-7793 / FAX (907) 274-7793

Alaska Cooperative Extension Offices
    www.dced.state.ak.us/mra/CF_COMDB.htm

Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
    www.hss.state.ak.us

Alaska Department of Education
    www.educ.state.ak.us

Alaska Information Network
    www.ak.org

Alaska Native Knowledge Network
    www.ankn.uaf.edu

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network is designed to serve as a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. It has been established to assist Native people, government agencies, educators and the general public in gaining access to the knowledge base that Alaska Natives have acquired through cumulative experience.

Alaska PTA
    www.alaska.net/~akpta/index.html

Alaskan Schools
    www.educ.state.ak.us/Alaskan_Schools/home.html

Anchorage's Healthy Indicators
    www.indicators.ak.org

Child Care Grant Program
    www.comregaf.state.ak.us/dcrd_ccg.htm

Child Care Resource and Referral
    www.comregaf.state.ak.us/dcrd_ccr.htm

Children's Services - State of Alaska Home Page
    www.state.ak.us/kids/grownup.html

Head Start Program
    www.comregaf.state.ak.us/dcrdhead.htm

State of Alaska Home Page
    www.state.ak.us

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Child in Transition/Homeless Project
Care and Education in a Time of Transition

Background on homelessness families and children
On any given day, 27 percent of homeless Americans are children, and their average age is nine years. Who are the homeless and are they in your school? Homeless families with children often live in transitional living situations such as shelters, campgrounds, cars, parks, motels, or with relatives or friends. Unfortunately, children who are homeless do not always get the education to which they are entitled. Many barriers exist in providing school programs for homeless children including lack of transportation, family mobility, poor health, and lack of food, clothing, and school supplies. Service providers have found that homeless children also face difficulties in being evaluated for special education programs and services, participating in after-school events and activities including after-school care programs, and obtaining counseling and psychological services.

Research on brain development (New brain research) shows that experiences and interactions with caregivers from the day of birth profoundly affect how a child's brain matures. From the first days of life, stimulation received by the developing brain sets the tone for later learning and regulation of emotions. Children and infants in the preschool years learn in the context of important relationships. Stressors and problems caused by homelessness can interrupt the stimulation and relation-ship building during preschool years. This puts even more emphasis on the importance of social and educational programming for young children who are experiencing the stressors of homelessness. Unfortunately, educational programs for homeless preschoolers and their families are few and far in between.

In 1994, the Stewart B. McKinney Homelessness Assistance Act was amended to allow homeless children access to publicly funded preschool programs. Only 24 percent of the shelters surveyed in a study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty www.nlchp.org actually have a preschool program, yet they represent 64 percent of the programs that indicated that all or most of their residents attended preschool. One program has aimed to target young children within their scope of educational outreach. The Child in Transition/Homeless (CIT/H) program in Anchorage, Alaska is a partnership between the Anchorage School District Title I Program, the Homeless Program, Head Start, JTPA, and Youth Training. The program is an example of the community, schools and families coming together for continuity of educational opportunity for all children.

According to statistics from the Anchorage School District, an estimated 3000 homeless children live in Anchorage at any one time. About 1000 of these children are served through Anchorage School District's Child in Transition/Homeless program, 300 of whom are between the ages of 3-6 years. In 1998, the Anchorage school District completed a survey of the unique needs of homeless children and youth. It identified educational and school-related activities that are major needs of homeless children within the District. These included tutoring, special education, English as a second language, counseling, transportation, free and reduced meals, medical services, school supplies, preschool programs, case management, parent training and involvement, agency coordination, attendance motivation, assessment of individual needs, clothing, food, attendance follow-up.

Goals and Services
The Child in Transition/Homeless program works with children and youth temporarily residing in eight emergency shelters, one outreach site, as well as children and youth who reside in other transitional living situations such as tents, campgrounds, motels, cars or with friends. There is a Youth Resource Center, which sees approximately 50 youth a day, where CIT/H services and crisis management services are offered. Approximately 30 percent of the children and youth CIT/H works with are non-sheltered students, experiencing extreme poverty during the school year.

The mission is to eliminate barriers to school enrollment, attendance and success during the upheaval that is homelessness. Many children who have grown up homeless or in situations of extreme poverty exhibit mild to severe developmental delays in one or more of the following areas: language, physical, social, emotional and cognition. CIT/H accomplishes its mission through early intervention and prevention programs; transportation coordination and support; distribution of school supplies and personal hygiene materials; individual and small group tutoring in shelters, schools and community sites; child, youth and family advocacy; and community referrals.

The three objectives of the Child in Transition/Homeless project are to:

1. Increase homeless students' educational success through academic and enrichment support opportunities
2. Increase enrollment, attendance and retention, and educational success by providing students with basic material necessities
3. To strengthen family, school and community partnerships

Program Components
Children's Learning and Enrichment - Families living in crisis and youth on their own rarely have the opportunity to be involved in enrichment activities such as visits to libraries, science centers, museums or fine arts productions. CIT/H has developed on-site early preschool programs, shelter-based school age and youth tutoring, individual student tutoring in schools and the community, enrichment programs and transportation. Staffs meet quarterly with local shelter coordinators to share information, address needs of homeless children and families, and to communicate with shelter staff concerning specific needs and issues in regard to homeless students' education. Continuity of education is provided through an early childhood and elementary education teacher/tutor coordinator, and a secondary education teacher/tutor coordinator, assigned to provide individual instruction and oversee the educational progress of homeless children. Having lost the sense of neighborhood and home, these children can benefit from having the same teacher, classroom, friends and books.

The "Wheels on the Bus" project provides families with young children weekly opportunities to learn through field- based curriculum in the Anchorage community. Shelter volunteers, parents and CTI/H staff provides transportation, coordination and child supervision. Non-residential families are invited to participate and are provided bus tokens and passes, gas vouchers and other means of transportation. Field trips actively involve children in learning and exploring their world. When they have the opportunity to experience activities first hand, it is a rich stimulus for language, social and cognitive development. When they return, students and their families are given the opportunity to continue learning through use of related materials in the shelter early childhood classrooms. Supplemental theme-based kits, created with curriculum activities by CIT/H teachers, help children make sense of their field trip experiences and help them to plan new trips.

Infant and Pre-School Programs - The local Head Start adjusted its placement scale to include homelessness as a priority criterion for entrance regardless of where families move following their homelessness.

School-Linked Health and Social Services - Community agencies working with homeless families in other related capacities collaborate with CIT/H staff to broaden the educational picture and assess related needs so that children can succeed in school while homeless or transitional. Parents and guardians of homeless students are asked to sign a release of information upon a family's intake at the shelter in order to meet ASD confidentiality requirements and to permit communication within the school district and between designated agencies and shelters. In schools receiving Title 1 funding, the Family School Services Coordinator is often the first point of contact for CIT/H students, families or staff. In non-Title 1 schools, the principal or assistant principal or counselor fulfills this role.

Parent Education - Child in Transition staff work respectfully with families, meeting together to identify barriers to enrolling, maintaining attendance and educational success in schools. They identify family strengths and link families to needed resources by working together with community agency personnel for a "coordinated whole systems, ecological approach." Open communication is encouraged between parents, guardians and youth and the child's teacher with the help of the CIT/H staff.

Family and Community Development - a new project called Partners in Homeless Education, a partnership of twenty Anchorage agencies, began meeting in 1998, and with facilitation offered by United Way, prioritized the needs of Anchorage's homeless children. A lack of summer programs was identified as the number one unmet need. Summer educational programs for homeless children are limited in access and availability. Transportation is the number one barrier to access - especially for families who move from temporary shelter to shelter. Partners in Homeless Education has targeted a goal of 200 students ages 3-14 years for quality programs during the 1999 summer. A calendar of community-wide programs and activities has been developed as well as a plan for coordinated transportation from shelters to these activities, a coordinator and seven "family partners" to assure linkage to the programs.

Staff
There are two tutors who help within the shelters. A Family Liaison is based in the school, providing linkage to necessary services for families outside the school. An on -site preschool parent volunteer coordinator visits families in the shelters and temporary homes. The Family Services Coordinator works closely with Head Start for long term services. The program provides transportation to the school, tutoring as needed, helps the child and family find food and clothing, provides school supplies, facilitates paperwork for collaboration with other agencies and programs, and provides classes at all the community's shelters.

Training Efforts
"Everything we do is built around establishing a caring relationship with parents of homeless children, to show that someone cares." The CIT/H staff provides on-going training workshops for tutors and other school personnel in relationship to working with homeless children and youth. The training program Working Respectfully With Families has been utilized to enhance staff ability to use a strength-based approach to developing partnerships with families, working with other community agencies and programs to build resources in the community for families and children. CTI/H teachers and homeless education specialists attend and present at the National Association of State Coordinators of Homeless Education of Children and Youth conference. To increase awareness, Anchorage teachers were given fliers entitled "Are There Homeless Students in Your Classroom?" informing them of the possible signs of homelessness. These signs may include frequently tired, chronic hunger, attendance of many different schools, erratic attendance and tardiness, grooming and personal hygiene issues, consistently not being prepared for school, behavioral changes, talking about living in a motel or with relatives and friends.

The Partners in Education group produced and distributed a homeless awareness videotape for the community entitled "Pieces of the Quilt", depicting the impact of homelessness on a child's education. The Partners in Homeless Education has developed a Homeless Education Advocacy and Resource Task (HEART) Force to allow opportunities for parents, school and agency personnel to strengthen their partnerships and will foster awareness and understanding of individual and collaborative roles and responsibilities in relation to supporting homeless children and youth.

Evaluation is built into the programming with a variety of data sources. Simple parent questionnaires are filled out for feedback and suggestions on educational enrichment activities. Staff document children's language and developmental growth using informal child assessments and anecdotal observations and keep attendance reports. Enrollment reports from Head Start track children's movements. Parents, teachers and students are a rich source of anecdotal reports regarding educational successes.

What are the collaborators learning? Intensive communication and collaboration with families strengthens the link between school and family. Homeless families; disenfranchised and marginalized; often comment on their surprise that the Anchorage School District cares enough to provide such educational support for them.

Families, schools and community all contribute to the educational success of homeless children and youth. The CIT/H program along with their Partners in Homeless Education provides a comprehensive array of services to reduce enrollment delays and improve attendance and educational success. Meeting these needs is the first step to school readiness.

The CIT/H program has worked with over 1,000 students annually since 1994. CIT/H provided 114 preschool, elementary and secondary students with enrollment services, 249 students with transportation assistance, and 624 students with tutoring, early childhood and other educational enrichment opportunities. With the help of CIT/H, three homeless students received their high school diplomas and 12 received their GED by the end of April 1998.