Eugene weekly., October 15, 2015, Page 13, Image 13

Invest
in Kids
LANE COUNTY CHILDREN
NEED WIDESPREAD
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
By Amy Schneider
KIDS READ IN A HEAD START
CLASSROOM — HEAD START
SERVES 1,120 CHILDREN AND
THEIR FAMILIES IN LANE COUNTY
C
olton Thompson is 6 years old. He has a mop
of light blonde hair and a mischievous look in
his eyes. He goes to school in Springfield.
One day during school, a classmate came
up to Colton with a message from Colton’s
dad. Colton and his family are fleeing domestic abuse, so
the message scared him. Colton’s mom has a restraining
order against his dad, and his family is staying in a safe
house.
Colton spent the rest of the night throwing up. He
feared that his dad would take him from school. Ever since
then, Colton hasn’t liked school very much.
Colton, his sister Lala and his brother Xavier are three
of 491 unhoused K-12 students in the Springfield School
District. Homeless children comprise 4.44 percent of
students in the district. Eugene School District 4J’s
percentage is slightly smaller at 4.24 percent, but in Bethel
School District, 7.21 percent of students are unhoused.
Colton’s mom, Cozette Thompson, fled her abusive
partner 10 months ago, and while she and her kids are now
safe, “it’s affected my children tremendously,” she says.
They missed three months of school while the family was
on the run, an unavoidable consequence of trying to keep
away from an ex hellbent on ruining Cozette Thompson’s
credit by putting houses and a car under her name, which
ruined her credit, she says.
Things are getting better, she says — the family lives in
a safe house and she now feels comfortable going out in
public — but all of her kids have a form of PTSD after
years of witnessing violent and abusive behavior.
Kids from low-income and homeless families often fight
to survive, and it can take a toll on learning. The number of
students who qualify for free and reduced lunches in Lane
County has grown over the past 13 years — Springfield rose
from 43.7 percent in 2001 to 65.6 percent in 2014 — and
while these numbers aren’t a direct measure of poverty, they
indicate an increase in struggling families, which parallels
the lack of affordable housing and increasing difficulty of
supporting a family on minimum wage.
It’s no wonder that in 2012, only 51 percent of
economically disadvantaged eighth graders in Oregon met
grade level standards, according to a state report. The
obstacles they face — lack of transportation, health issues,
hunger, trauma, constantly changing living situations —
make a challenge of getting to school, let alone doing well
in class and focusing energies on learning.
Research by scientists at the University of Oregon’s
Brain Development Lab indicates that early learning
programs can boost cognition and social skills in low-
income children, especially if parents also participate. The
researchers work with Head Start of Lane County, a
federal program that provides comprehensive services —
health, nutrition, social services, education — for low-
income families with preschoolers, preparing young
learners for kindergarten and helping to level the
socioeconomic playing field.
But these programs need support. Since it’s a federally
funded program, Head Start can’t use that money to
fundraise for increased services, and hundreds of children
are on the wait list. In 2012, the average Head Start teacher
with an associate’s degree in Oregon made $23,473,
according to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).
That’s not much of an investment.
Lane County kids need a fair chance. The children of
our state are slipping behind.
Young Minds
Cozette Thompson says the concept of family, or
“ohana,” to borrow from the movie Lilo & Stitch, is an
important one to her and her children. When she left her
partner, she says, she didn’t want her kids to think she had
given up, or that she hadn’t tried hard enough.
“I try not to talk bad about him but explain that a bad
choice was made,” she says. “We’re happier now. We
don’t hit and cuss. We’re a family.”
They couldn’t get a puppy, like in Lilo & Stitch, but the
family keeps a pet leopard gecko to represent the strength
of their bond. “I tell them that no matter what, it’s here,
and it’s a part of our family,” she says. “Nobody’s getting
left behind.”
Strong relationships between child and parent can act
P H OTO BY TO D D COO P E R
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