EDUCATION
A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019
Students lack adequate nighttime residences
By KATHY ANEY
and JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITERS
New data from the Ore-
gon Department of Educa-
tion shows the number of
homeless students in Ore-
gon increased 2% during the
2018-19 school year, con-
tinuing a trend over the last
decade.
The number of students
who receive the designation
of homeless under McKin-
ney-Vento have declined in
the Hermiston School Dis-
trict in recent years, however.
Last year, 20 students
were identified. That’s less
than half a percent of the
student population in the
region’s largest district.
The district’s liaison for
homeless students, Lisa
Depew, said that a tightening
of the definition of home-
lessness by federal standards
in recent years is a likely rea-
son why.
“When this act was ini-
tially enforced, there were a
lot of loopholes,” she said.
“They’ve really tightened
those up.”
But there’s something
else at play too, she thinks.
“Our district has done
a good job at prevention,”
Depew said.
Depew said many stu-
dents are eligible to receive
free meals, clothing or edu-
cational support, regardless
of whether they are eligi-
ble for the McKinney-Vento
Assistance Program or not.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Bags of food await distribution at Highland Hills Elementary School in Hermiston on Friday
afternoon. The bags, a part of the Agape House Backpack Program, are only a fraction of the
roughly 185 bags that Agape House distributes each week to help feed kids on weekends
when school meals are not available.
Becoming identified as
homeless is a process that
starts at the individual school
level in the Hermiston
School District. Attendance
issues or frequent relocation
might be signs a student is
without adequate shelter.
“There are little red flags,
maybe during registration or
while talking with a coun-
selor, that may warrant a
deeper conversation,” she
said.
Depew said that the
Hermiston School District
partners with the Mid-Co-
lumbia Bus Company to pro-
vide transportation to stu-
dents who move often, so
they have a chance to stay
at the same school even if
it might mean altering a bus
route or coordinating with
another town while shelter is
secured.
“You want to keep them
at their school of origin,” she
said. “Studies have found
that moving around a lot can
disrupt a kid’s progress.”
She said that unstable
housing can cause a lapse in
personal care for a child, and
result in low self-esteem and
bullying.
The district, and neigh-
boring districts, including
Stanfield and Umatilla, part-
ner with Eastern Oregon
Mission’s Agape House to
provide food to elementary
schoolers through the Back-
pack Program. Children
whose families are strug-
gling with poverty and pos-
sibly homelessness are iden-
tified and sent home with a
bag of easy-to-prepare non-
perishables for the weekend.
Cathy Putnam, interim
director for the Agape
House, said the organization
hands out 185 bags of food
to children each Friday. Last
week, Highland Hills Ele-
mentary School distributed
12 among their students,
according to Principal Jake
Bacon.
“A couple years ago,
we were only doing a little
under 100 bags per week,”
Putnam said. “I think that
represents more of a need in
our community.”
Eastern Oregon Mis-
sion in Hermiston also runs
Martha’s House, a shelter
where families can stay for
up to six months to recuper-
ate from displacement and
financial stress. Over the
summer, occupation at the
house was low, but Putnam
said that two new families
moved in this month.
Putnam said there are
children of all ages, from
different areas in Umatilla
County, living at Martha’s
House.
Lack of affordable hous-
ing is a key reason why fami-
lies with children experience
homelessness in its many
varieties within Hermiston,
according to Depew. Over
half of last year’s homeless
students were doubled up in
housing with other families.
“Hermiston has a ton of
available housing out there.
But for folks who are experi-
encing displacement, what is
affordable?” she said.
Marie Shimer, director
of educational services at
the Morrow County School
District, asked a similar
question.
The district identified 126
students as homeless last
year, a 20-student increase
from the 2017-18 school
year. That’s over 5% of its
student population. Shimer
said that this year, there are
students living in hotels and
motels. Many of them are
in families with migrant
workers in the agricultural
industry.
“We do see a trend
upward,” Shimer said. ”A
lot of that relates to the avail-
ability of housing in Irrigon
and Boardman, and afford-
ability, too.”
In a recent press release,
the department of educa-
tion stated that money from
the Student Success Act,
which passed through the
Oregon Legislature this year
and will allot $500 million
to districts statewide, could
wind up servicing homeless
students.
Morrow County School
District operates four days a
week, and Shimer said that
being able to extend oper-
ating hours could be a boon
for students seeking a warm
place to learn and access
meals.
Both Hermiston and Mor-
row County school districts
partner with countywide
CARE teams. The teams
provide referral-based social
services and can provide
assistance with enrolling
in the Oregon Health Plan
or transportation needs, for
instance.
Morrow County School
District Superintendent Dirk
Dirksen said the district
makes a point of providing
services on-site in the form
of counseling and physical
health support. The district
has CARE team employees
on staff, too.
“It’s critical these stu-
dents are not running to five
different agencies for sup-
port,” he said.
Local resources work
to reduce falling risks
among older population
By ALEX CASTLE
FOR THE HERMISTON HERALD
More than 15% of Uma-
tilla County’s population
is 65 or older, 2018 U.S.
Census data showed, and
according to a preliminary
population report from
Portland State Univer-
sity released last week, all
of Oregon’s population is
growing older.
For people 65 and older,
specifically, this comes
with an increased risk of
serious injury from falling.
According to the Cen-
ters for Disease Control
and Prevention, 3 million
older people are treated for
fall injuries in emergency
departments every year.
Injuries range from bro-
ken bones — 300,000 older
people are hospitalized for
hip fractures every year —
to concussions and other
traumatic brain injuries.
Once somebody falls,
the CDC says, their chances
of falling again double. The
result, regardless of injury,
is also a heightened fear of
falling, which can lead to
lower activity levels and an
enhanced risk of falling due
to a weaker body.
To help combat the prob-
lem, Hermiston’s Good
Shepherd Health Care Sys-
tem provides interactive
classes and other resources
on fall prevention geared
toward senior citizens.
Earlier this month, they
held a two-hour fall pre-
vention seminar that pro-
moted healthy exercises to
build strength and balance,
along with education on
recognizing the signs of a
potential brain injury.
“A person may fall and
hit their head but show no
noticeable signs of a con-
cussion,” Good Shepherd
community health educator
Jessica Reker said.
Good Shepherd will be
hosting another fall pre-
vention seminar on Dec.
7, Reker said, with more
planned throughout 2020.
For a longer, more
in-depth class on fall pre-
vention, Good Shepherd is
also teaching a six-week
course called Matter of
Balance that begins in Jan-
uary. The class will be held
at the Cottonwood Apart-
ments in Hermiston, with
another session planned
at the senior center in the
spring.
All of Good Shep-
herd’s classes are free of
charge and open to the pub-
lic. Reker said they’ve had
caregivers in class who
have used what they learn
to help their own clients.
In addition to its inter-
active classes, Good Shep-
herd also works directly
with connection teams,
Reker said, which are made
up of community paramed-
ics that go out to clients’
homes and provide fall risk
assessments.
“They’ll look to see
if there are rugs, what’s
the lighting like, are there
stairs, what’s the path to the
bedroom like,” she said.
The risk assessments are
similar to those performed
in the region by the Com-
munity Action Program of
East Central Oregon’s, or
CAPECO’s, Area Agency
on Aging Department.
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