Early identification, family relationship building, and community partnerships are helping students and families avoid homelessness

When a family loses stable housing, the first signs often appear at school. A child arrives tired or late. Attendance slips. Reaching a parent becomes harder. But even when these early signs are recognized, schools have limited capacity to help families preserve housing and prevent the homelessness that can seriously disrupt a child’s learning and well-being.

With support from the John T. Gorman Foundation, however, the Sanford School Department is now working to implement systems that help families earlier, before they lose housing.

Like other schools across the region and state, Sanford has seen a rise in student homelessness in recent years. In 2023, York County school districts identified 421 students experiencing homelessness – a 400% increase since the start of the pandemic. In Sanford alone, 142 students were identified as experiencing homelessness last school year.

As school staff and administrators in Sanford worked with an increasing number of students experiencing homelessness, they recognized that a case-by-case response was not enough to help students in a meaningful, sustained way.

“We saw more homeless students and asked what we could do to support these families and students,” Assistant Superintendent Steven Bussiere said. “How do we prevent these situations? We realized that by working further upstream, we could support students in a way that has more lasting impact.”

A Prevention Approach Rooted in Early Connection

The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act requires schools to identify and assist students experiencing homelessness and remove barriers to enrollment and attendance. It ensures continuous enrollment, transportation to a student’s school of origin, and access to basic school services while a family is displaced. However, these supports are typically offered after a family has already lost housing and do not include the financial resources needed to stabilize housing.

Building on state student homelessness prevention pilot grants, Foundation funding has allowed Sanford to expand its efforts to identify those at risk of losing housing and offer early assistance. The goal is to keep families in their homes, build their trust with schools, and keep students connected to learning.

The work of building those family connections begins long before kindergarten. The district’s early learning team has been engaging families from birth through the preschool years with play groups, resource connections, and transition support. School registration now includes a needs assessment for families. That groundwork has shaped a prevention model that gives families a familiar point of contact while creating natural opportunities for staff to recognize signs of stress and offer support.

“It’s hard to stay in constant crisis mode. It drains staff and doesn’t serve families as well as it could,” said district outreach worker Leah Marks. “We started shifting our focus to sharing resources early and building relationships, so when challenges arise, families already feel comfortable coming to us.”

Staff training and proactive identification efforts have helped schools reach a greater number of families in need of assistance. During the last school year, the district was able to help 16 students and their families move into stable housing and prevent homelessness for 55 more.

One family of six had been living in a vehicle. The district helped with a security deposit and connected them to York County Community Action Corporation with referrals for case management, mental health supports, and a budgeting program. After the family moved into housing, staff saw clear improvements in attendance, behavior, and academic performance. The school provided a Thanksgiving box to help them settle in. When staff offered additional holiday resources a few weeks later, the family replied, “We’re all set. We want another family to receive that resource.”

Community Partnerships at the Center

“Even as resources shrink, working together has allowed us to support more families than ever.”

Partnerships are essential to the prevention model. “We’ve never done more with less,” said Marks. “Even as resources shrink, working together has allowed us to support more families than ever.”

The district works closely with York County Community Action Corporation for housing assistance, transportation, coaching, and budgeting, and with the Sanford Housing Authority for referrals and placement coordination. Local mental health providers add counseling and wraparound support so services continue beyond the moment of crisis. The district also helps families understand how to access these resources for themselves and stays connected as needs change.

District leaders are also beginning to connect with neighboring school departments across York County to coordinate their approaches. By aligning their strategies, the schools aim to provide consistent support, even if a family’s address changes.

In practice, schools are an important anchor for this work. They can be the first place where changing family circumstances are noticed – and can consistently offer care and connection, even when housing becomes unstable.

When schools play that critical role the benefits extend far beyond student academics.

“This isn’t just a school initiative – it’s a community initiative,” Bussiere said. “Healthy families and healthy students benefit everyone.”