As Minneapolis school district looks for cuts, homeless students and their families fear impact

Joletta Edwards knows firsthand that school staffers don't always know what homeless students need.

She recalled the moment when a staffer came into her son's classroom, introduced herself as the caseworker in charge of the program for homeless students and asked for her son by name — in front of all his classmates.

"The next call I got was them trying to get him to come out of the bathroom because he was in there crying," Edwards said.

Over the past two years, Edwards and other Minneapolis public school parents who have experienced homelessness have banded together to form a parent advisory council. They've created professional development training for staffers, spoken at school board meetings and met with legislators.

But now as part of its budget-cutting process, Minneapolis Public Schools plans to split the department serving homeless and highly mobile students in two and eliminate the director's position. To the parent council, the cuts feel like an attempt to reduce the power they've built since 2023.

More than 3,200 Minneapolis public school students experienced homelessness at some point during the 2023-24 school year, according to district data. That's nearly 10% of all students enrolled, and a 30% jump from the previous year. The number of homeless students in the district has doubled since 2021, when numbers reached a 10-year low during the COVID-19 eviction moratorium.

Federal law requires schools to provide support to students experiencing homelessness, but that level of support can vary from one district to another. The Minneapolis school district has developed several innovative programs such as the Stable Homes Stable Schools initiative, a partnership of the district, the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County that provides short-term rental assistance to the families of elementary students experiencing homelessness.

Parents fear that restructuring the department will make future progress more difficult, even though district officials say that the changes would have minimal impact on students and families. Officials said they don't anticipate any changes in the work of the parent council, including professional development sessions for staffers.

But the parents are skeptical. They credit Charlotte Kinzley, the district's director of homeless and highly mobile student support services, for inviting parents to create the advisory council. Since then, they've formed a community. "It's because of Charlotte," Edwards said.

Under the budget changes, Kinzley would lose her position and the person replacing her would be a manager, not a director. The Stable Homes program would become a standalone department, which parents say could lead to less coordination with other homelessness services. A full-time counseling position would go to half-time, and programming weeks would be reduced.

Kinzley told Sahan Journal that she did not understand the changes. "I'm really disappointed to not get to continue to do this work," she said.

The proposed cuts come as the Minneapolis school district faces a $75 million budget deficit out of an operating budget of nearly $800 million. Overall, the district plans to cut staffing by about 400 full-time positions.

At an April 22 school board meeting, Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams explained that the district had attempted to focus cuts on administrative positions, eliminating about 14% of jobs at the central office.

The changes in homeless and highly mobile services would save the district about $72,000, or about 5% of the departments' combined $1.5 million budget. The district said cuts in this area were aimed to make up for the loss of $100,000 in federal COVID relief funding, which expired last year.

But parents say they don't understand how cutting Kinzley's position and replacing her with a slightly lower-paid manager would help with the budget. District officials said the decision was "not solely financial. ... MPS is moving closer to standardizing departments, hence the decision to consolidate some positions, adjust titles, etc."

The school board will vote June 10 on the final budget.

The parent advisory group's ultimate goal is an all-day mandatory professional development session for all staffers. So far, a few shorter sessions have been held for smaller groups. Those trainings discuss the shame and stigma that comes with homelessness, and explain the signs that school staffers should look for.

"With our stories, we're able to express different angles, different outlooks, different perspectives from what we've struggled through, to help all of our staff see and be more understanding," said Dominique Buffett, another parent in the group.

Another key issue the parents cover during professional development is treating their children with discretion and dignity. Several parents shared stories in which school staffers outed students' homelessness status to their peers.

Kara Lattu, a social worker at Washburn High School who attended one of the professional development sessions, said she was excited to hear from parents willing to educate her on their experiences with homelessness.

Allison Young, a counselor at Andersen United Middle School, checks on students who are chronically absent. In the professional development session, she heard how much of a difference it made when staffers called parents with "warmth and curiosity," rather than an accusatory tone, about why a student wasn't at school.

Kinzley said she believed the parents would continue to do "really good work." But not all of them are convinced.

"I'm scared that we're not going to accomplish as many things," Edwards said.

Buffett, however, said she was determined to make professional development happen. She spoke at her first school board meeting in January and now she's mulling a future run for school board.

"I'm going to keep fighting," she said.

About the partnership

This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota's immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan's stories in your inbox.