Proposed cuts to MCPS staff who support students, families raise concerns

50 central service positions on chopping block under fiscal year 2027 budget proposal

A typical work week for a pupil personnel worker for Tee Clark in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), can involve helping families and students experiencing homelessness complete required forms, advising families who are considering homeschooling or assisting in the re-enrollment of students who are involved with the county Department of Juvenile Services.   

“We show up at hospitals for kids. We show up at funerals for kids,” Clark told Bethesda Today on Tuesday. “We’re there with families who are grieving the loss of their kids because of whatever reasons. I was at a funeral about a month and a half ago with a family. I went to the house before the funeral. So we do a whole lot of personal touch with the families.”   

That’s why Clark, who serves the Northwood cluster, and her fellow pupil personnel workers, along with county school board members, are raising concerns about Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s recommendation to cut 10 of the district’s 52 positions and other positions that support students as part of his proposed $3.78 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2027.   

“Although I totally understand that we are [in very hard times] times of budgeting … I am very leery about cutting certain positions that we have built on for decades to ensure that we have that trust in the community,” school board President Grace Rivera-Oven said Tuesday during a work session on the budget proposal attended by Clark and other pupil personnel workers at the board’s Rockville headquarters...

  https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/01/07/proposed-cuts-to-mcps-staff-raise-concerns/

Support for Homeless Youth in the Context of COVID-19: A Brief Overview

Excerpt:

The CARES Act includes provisions relevant to homeless K-12 students. The act established an Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund of $13 billion for SEAs, which is to be distributed by ED to SEAs based on the amount of funding each SEA received under ESEA Title I-A for the most recent fiscal year; 90% of these funds must be distributed, also by formula, to LEAs. The CARES Act enumerates 11 areas in which LEAs may use relief funds, three of which pertain to homeless children and youth: (1) any activities authorized under the EHCY program, among other federal elementary and secondary education programs and activities; (2) activities to address the unique needs of children experiencing homelessness and specified other student populations, including how outreach and service delivery will meet the needs of each population; and (3) planning and implementing activities related to summer learning and supplemental afterschool programs, including meeting the needs of students experiencing homelessness and specified other student populations.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11302

Two-Thirds of Maryland’s Homeless Students Live in Suburbs

This snapshot is part of a series analyzing student homelessness in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.ICPHusa.org for more information.

In the 2014–15 school year, Maryland had 874,514 students enrolled in 25 school districts (local education agencies).
That year, there were 16,096 homeless students in the state, making up 1.8% of total enrollment.
Maryland had the 25th highest number of homeless students and the 33rd highest rate of student homelessness in the U.S.
School districts with the highest rates of student homelessness were Wicomico County (8%) and Cecil County (5%)...

http://www.icphusa.org/national/two-thirds-marylands-homeless-students-live-suburbs/

Group Home Teen Gets Second Shot With Promising Football Career

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2013/11/26/greentree-shelter-youth-gets-second-shot-with-promising-football-career/

657 Homeless Students in Montgomery County

Thanks to The Baltimore Sun for investigating the number of homeless students in the state of Maryland and passing along the Montgomery County information to the Parents' Coalition.


In 2011, there were 657 students in Montgomery County that were classified as homeless.  


In 2005, there were 475 students in Montgomery County that were classified as homeless. 


In 2011, Montgomery County had the 6th highest number of homeless students in the state of Maryland out of 24 counties. At the top of the list was Prince George's County, then Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Wicomico County, Anne Arundel County and then Montgomery County.

Video: Weast at U.S. Senate

On January 21, 2010, Superintendent Jerry Weast appeared before the U.S. Senate's Labor-HHS Subcommittee hearing "How to Save and Create Jobs".  Weast's written submission is here.

Video of his statements to the Subcommittee can be seen here. Click on the Webcast for Jan. 21, 2010 Labor-HHS Hearing on Job Creation.

Superintendent Weast speaks at minute 81:27 through 90:00.

Weast comments on homeless students in MCPS at minute 100 through 104.

Weast comments on school construction & "going green" at minute 113 and
121.


Weast comments on balancing interests, poverty, and more on school construction at minute 123 through 128.

Weast comments on summer jobs at minute 139:40 through 140:30.

Weast comments on building new high schools at minute 144:50.

Instructions for the public to submit written testimony to this Subcommittee are here.

2004: Homeless Students Win Preliminary Injunction Against Montgomery County Public Schools

Homeless Kids Win Injunction Against Montgomery County School System

Click here for an article about this injunction in the Gazette News.
Public Justice Center Press Release
August 11, 2004
For Further Information Contact: Francine K. Hahn, Esq. Public Justice Center 410-625-9409, ext. 234
For Immediate Release: Homeless Students Win Preliminary Injunction Against Montgomery County Public Schools

A federal court yesterday granted the request of homeless children in Montgomery County, represented by the Public Justice Center, for a preliminary injunction to allow them to stay with their classmates as they matriculate from elementary to middle school or from middle to high school. Montgomery County Public School officials had said the students must transfer to different Montgomery County schools -- the ones closest to the family's temporary living quarters -- which would have disrupted the student's continuity of schools, friends, and community. Yesterday's ruling upheld the right of 44 homeless children in the County to school continuity under the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
Children who have homes move with their classmates, as a group, from an elementary school to a particular middle school, and then to a particular high school . This "feeder system" fosters continuity in education and the child's community. In ruling against MCPS, Judge Deborah K. Chasanow ordered that the four children named in the court papers must be allowed to remain in their school of origin feeder systems as they enter high school and middle school this coming school year and that MCPS must provide free transportation. Judge Chasanow also ordered MCPS to immediately notify the remaining 40 matriculating homeless students of their right to remain in their school of origin feeder systems. Any of these students who request it will be permitted to matriculate to the next level school with their class mates from last year, and will be provided free transportation from their temporary address.
"This is a huge victory for homeless students in Montgomery County which we hope will reverberate throughout the state and beyond," said Francine Hahn of the Public Justice Center, lawyer for the students. "The Court recognized that school continuity includes things such as academic consistency and maintaining friendships. Tearing homeless children away from their familiar school environments simply because they happen to remain homeless when moving up to middle or high school is contrary to federal law."
"I'm excited that Sierra will be able to continue with her peers and not be burdened by the additional transportation issues. I believe the outcome of our victory will be a great high school career for Sierra," said Melody Reynolds, one of the parents present at yesterday's court hearing.
The lawsuit was initially filed as an individual case in March 2002. In that case, the court ordered MCPS to allow four children in one family to return to their Montgomery County schools even though they were residing temporarily in the District of Columbia. One of those children, Brandon Haynes, had been kept out of school all year by MCPS officials who said the McKinney Act did not apply to him. Since that time Brandon has graduated from high school with his peers and is now attending college. The case was made a class action in November 2002.


Gazette article