Damion Wilson & Dustin Schwandt, Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Kate: Welcome to the Project Hope Virginia Podcast. Empowering Voices in Homeless Education in McKinney-Vento.

Homelessness for children and youth in the U.S. can often look very different than the stereotypical image that comes to mind. These students are rarely sleeping on the streets. In fact, students experiencing homelessness may go unnoticed if teachers and other school staff don’t know which signs to look for. Identifying students experiencing homelessness is a critical process because they have certain educational rights. The Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, was originally passed in 1987 and ensures these students are identified and connected to the supports they need to succeed in school.

The McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness extends beyond students who are sleeping on the streets or in shelters. This federal law’s education definition of homelessness also includes students and families who are staying in motels due to the lack of other options and those who are staying with family or friends due to loss of housing or economic hardship. This broader definition of homelessness guarantees that students living in these situations can experience educational stability despite their high mobility.

McKinney-Vento requires that students experiencing homelessness are given certain educational rights, such as the right to remain enrolled at their school of origin or to immediately enroll in their local school, even without required forms and medical records. They’re also given the right to transportation, even across division lines, and the right to access free school meals and other needed resources. Every school district across the country is required to appoint a liaison to ensure that these requirements are upheld.

I’m Kate Miller, training and communication specialist with Project Hope, Virginia, the office of the State Coordinator for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. In our first episode, we introduced our mission to support students experiencing homelessness and spotlighted the essential work of liaisons across Virginia. For our second episode, we’re focusing on the dynamic teamwork that brings Mckinney-Vento services to life in Virginia Beach.

Today, I’m thrilled to welcome two dedicated hope heroes: Damion Wilson, the coordinator of School Social Work Services and Mckinney-Vento liaison, and Dustin Schwandt, a school social worker, both from Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Together, they’ll share how they collaborate to create meaningful support for Mckinney-Vento students.

Kate: Welcome, Damion and Dustin. Thanks so much for joining us today. Glad you’re here. So, can you tell us how long you’ve both been in your roles in education and serving McKinney Vento students, as well as, how long you’ve both been working together?

Damion:Well, I’ve worked in Virginia City public schools for 17 years. I started working in Title One settings, mostly with adverse populations, and many of them would fall under the umbrella of McKinney-Vento. Amongst doing work related to our McKinney-Vento students, I did everything related to school social work.

I’m also working in alternative education in the school system as well. So basically, I’ve worked in a diverse array of different settings where I was employed and practiced my skills, and then eventually became the coordinator of Social Work services in 2020, where I work more directly with Mckinney-Vento students. And since that time, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working next to Dustin for the last four years and I think eight years overall when I was out in the field.

Dustin:And I’ve been with Virginia Beach Public Schools in this role for the past eight years. Prior to that, I worked a year in admissions at Regent University and I started that right out of grad school. So, most of my experience has been in education, higher education, in public schools.

Kate: Well, it’s clear that you both have a breadth of experience supporting students. So I feel very fortunate that you’re here today sharing that experience with us.

Can you all talk a little bit about the systems that your division has in place, both for identifying and assessing the needs of McKinney-Vento students in Virginia Beach?

Dustin: Yes. So it mostly goes through our office, through the Project Hope office. You have myself serving as the project school social worker. I staff most of the cases with Mr. Wilson, especially the ones that are a little more difficult to make a decision on, and then we work with the school social workers who are assigned to the schools, they’re the ones who do the actual verification of the family’s housing situation after we receive the domicile application, and then from there, we work with a lot of the support staff in the schools and in the community. So like with the registrars we do leadership trainings with like the principals in the APs in the summers, we do annual registrar training so they understand their role in this process, and then also just with the work we do with the community, like with Mr. Wilson being on the continuum of care on the governing board just to ensure that all the community partners, any partners that would be working with similar populations as us, that they understand what our process looks like. That includes working with, like the domestic violence shelters, some of the shelters that work with our unaccompanied homeless youth, to make sure that they understand who we are, what we do, and what the process should look like.

Kate: I think that’s really wonderful to hear about how much effort you and your team are putting into school staff training, and also reaching out to train community partners as well. I know that your jobs are really difficult and you wear many hats, so it’s incredibly important, as you’ve described, to make sure that you’re bringing along everybody who works with our students so they can help to identify them and give them the supports that they need. So it’s really great to hear how much time you’re putting into training your staff in your division.

Can you talk a little bit about how you both have worked together, but also with other colleagues outside of your Mckinney-Vento office to get your students the supports that they need?

Damion: Well, I work hand in hand with Dustin, and we have an office associate, the sheriff Ms. Simmons, who I’m in that office every day. Pretty much looking over transportation, talking about students and families, sometimes complaining, but nevertheless, you know, we do work hand-in-hand together, and we work with just those complicated issues on whether sometimes as families qualify for eligibility or then a lot of times social workers will call my office and they will do staff cases and provide them that support so that they can have a more clear response and a better grasp of the family that they may be dealing with.

And also working together too, we are also trying to come up with additional resources sometimes, we are planning and plotting, and then just sometimes we are just, you know, basically processing cases and a shoulder to lead on sometimes because we do get some very complicated cases, and, those complicated cases, we do sometimes endure a lot of, verbal kickback when we do make some decisions that are not in the favor of our families, but we do try to make sound assessments and judgments, and we really just work off of one another to really, you know, make the best decisions possible.

I think coming into this position, it was a lot I needed to learn, so really leaning on someone like Dustin and leaning on someone like Ms. Simmons and kinda catch up, though it was very beneficial. And now I think we do have a good process. I do believe that we are like a frying oil machine that is really getting off the assembly line. So we are perfect and we are aligned.

Kate: I think that’s wonderful to hear how seriously you take our Mckinney-Vento eligibility cases, they’re not often easy to navigate, so it’s great to hear that you’re able to give them the time that they deserve so that the right decisions are made, but also that you’re able to lean on each other because, again, your job is not always easy. And it’s great that you have the support of each other and your other colleagues who work in your Mckinney-Vento office as well.

Can you tell us a little bit about some of the most significant challenges that you face when trying to get Mckinney-Vento students to school, and what some of those challenges are in supporting them once they get there?

Dustin: Yes. So that’s an issue that probably takes up at least half of my time personally, trying to coordinate the transportation services for the students just because of the sheer volume of families that we have. How big of a city, Virginia beaches, and this region, and then how transient families are going between really the seven cities between Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Chesapeake primarily, but also as far out as Portsmouth, Suffolk, and even the peninsula. So trying to figure out those services, trying to find if there’s a bus available if they live in the city, especially with high schoolers, if there’s like an academy bus that they can ride or not, and then for those who are not, trying to figure out which of our various taxi providers to use to provide the services, and then just keeping up with the families on a day to day, especially the ones who are really struggling, who are in a lot of transition, going back and forth between maybe families houses or, the hotels. So trying to stay on top of where they’re currently at and even trying to stay ahead of where they’re going to be so that the kids don’t end up missing school when they are in the middle of the transition. That can take a lot of time and resources. And then just trying to keep up with like, if they’re going to miss the day because they’re sick or not because for the providers as well, it can be challenging because they have so many kids that they provide transportation services for. Trying to be available to get that call from mom at five in the morning that Johnny woke up sick and going to go to school to keep up with that so that the students don’t miss the cabs and then potentially lose the services. That can be very challenging. So we try to do our best with communicating with the parents and giving them as many options to notify us of what’s going on with them, whether it be a voicemail if it’s early in the morning or an email as well. And we try to keep the school social workers in the loop with what’s going on as well, so they can take care of attendance if they do miss.

Kate: It’s really helpful, I think, for people listening who might not realize all the work that goes into coordinating transportation for Mckinney-Vento students so that they can get to school. So thank you for talking about that with us. I think it’s really important also to just recognize how much work that you and your team put into coordinating that transportation, and then the meaning of that for the students is that they do get educational stability. They’re not going to miss school even though they might be moving several times throughout the school year. So, I think it’s a really worthwhile effort that you and your team are putting into those transportation processes that you’ve put in place.

You’ve created some amazing processes and programs in your division, clearly. So can you tell me what you’re most proud of about the programs that you’ve created and the ways that you’ve been able to support Mckinney-Vento students through your work?

Damion: One of our main and primary programs is our Jumpstart program, which has been 14 years strong. We started this program pretty much at our main building, which was, I believe, less road annex, which they have torn down. And then that program we support 500 to 600 students and pretty much a thousand families throughout our school division who are under Mckinney-Vento. And that program provides things so far as hygiene kits, clothes. We provide resources, food, we provide also eye exams, I mean, you name it, we provide it, haircuts. And this is right before the school year kicks off so that when kids come back to school they’re fresh, they’re ready to impress, and they’re just ready to learn. So that is one of our primary ingredients and primary programs that we have implemented that still continue on.

I think, so far in this process, one of the things that we’ve also completed and done within our department is that we are getting to the roots, or what I believe social work is, and part of that is case management. More increased case management and more direct practice with our students and families is beneficial. That helps us track and aid those families when needed. Prior to the position, we rarely ever had any cases to contact the families and many of our families are transient or unhoused, particularly in a city like Virginia Beach, which is a tourist, somewhat of a resort city. In the summer, where many of our families who live in the oceanfront area, who are unhoused and unstable, they have to relocate. So it’s been difficult trying to track those families throughout the summer and when September comes around, we have difficulty locating.

I think when increased case management from school social workers, we have been able to provide the support to families and identify them, as well as track them so that we can ensure that they maintained enrollment in school and that they’re not displaced from just another area when throughout the summer. That increased level of case management builds rapport for families and also helps sustain resources.

Kate: That’s wonderful. You have every right to be proud of those programs and efforts that your team is always working on throughout the year. It’s great to hear about the Jumpstart program and how those students and their parents can rest assured that their basic needs are being met. And then also just all the work that you’re putting into your case management processes as well, so that those students aren’t forgotten over the summer and that they can, again, get that educational stability from year to year. So that’s really wonderful.

So looking to the future, what are some of the ways that you’d like to improve upon what’s already being done for Mckinney-Vento students in Virginia Beach?

Dustin: Yes. So the biggest thing, something that Mr. Wilson’s working on is trying to just get some more staff back into the project Hope office, some more school social workers. I know I would appreciate that and the other school social workers as well. Currently, we have Ms. Simmons, who was one of the office associates that helps with the program, myself, Ms. Wilson is the homelessness liaison, and we have Miss Ingram, who is a support staff, she works with all there resources that students need. Whether that be connecting families to housing, clothing, food, helping with any type of bills, things like that, and then as far as the additional staff, it would be additional school social workers that could help with easing the burden of doing like the verifications, for example, for families that could really just focus on those really difficult cases that take a lot of time to really determine what’s really going on with the family and where they’re residing at because that could be very time-consuming for the school social workers who are assigned in the field to the schools because they have additional tasks in addition to McKinney-Vento. So that would be helpful, and then it would also allow me to just focus specifically on transportation or another task that Mr. Wilson would want me to work on. But that would be the biggest thing that would really help us support our families the most is just additional staff focus purely on the McKinney-Vento families.

Kate: Well, it’s really exciting to think about the possibilities if you all are able to do that and expand your office, looking at the amazing work that you’re already able to do with the staff that you have. So, I look forward to seeing what’s next.

If you are able to add some staff to your office in Virginia Beach, can you please share a success story about a Mckinney-Vento student that keeps you motivated in your work?

Damion: This is one that personally hits home for me because this was a student that I did work with. I served in an alternative setting for about seven years, and there was one student in particular who had a lot of trauma going on. We had a lot of personal things going on—was unhoused, was living on the street, and I one time with him and his mom, and he had to even support his mother and younger siblings. But eventually, they were able to find some temporary housing. But nevertheless, he had a dream to go to college, and he did attend college. And he extended my alma mater, which I wrote the letter of recommendation, and he did graduate last year. So I just think about breaking sometimes generational cycles of poverty. He is the first person in his family to graduate high school. He is not the first person in his family to graduate college, so I’m hoping by him graduating, that will set off a new trend, as basically his family and what he had to go through was balancing generational cycles of poverty. So that is one of my success stories. I think that is a testament to our program and Project Hope, and how we can just help families and will sustain them housing and give them some secure housing, but also resources by them being able to find permanent housing that provided that stability. And I think that along with that educational support, helped that young man get across the stage and graduate. And now he’s going on to grad school to do bigger and better things.

Kate: Well, thank you so much for sharing that story. You’re absolutely right. It really illustrates how meaningful the work that you do is for our students. And I know that there are many more stories like that in Virginia Beach because of the work that, Damion and Dustin, that you both do, with the individuals in your office and all of the staff in Virginia Beach who are working to support Mckinney-Vento students.

Dustin, do you have a success story you’d like to share as well?

Dustin: Yeah. The one that really comes to mind is one of our student-athletes who, after graduating, went on and got a full-ride scholarship to play D-1 football. So that was exciting. Just seeing the struggles that they went through, they were still able to focus, do what they needed to do to be able to earn that scholarship, and go on and play.

Kate: Thank you both so much for sharing those success stories. You’re absolutely right. They’re such great illustrations of the amazing and meaningful work that you all do every day to support McKinney-Vento students and families in Virginia Beach, along with the rest of your team at your Project Hope office here.

So, thank you again for joining us today on the podcast and for giving us your time. We really appreciate you being here.

Damion: It’s a pleasure.

Damion and Dustin: Thank you.