How Schools Can Help

Kids who flee their homes to avoid domestic violence will often end up homeless.  These children face many challenges.  Boys and girls who must leave violent homes are more likely than their peers to experience emotional and behavioral troubles.  They are more apt to engage in physical or emotional bullying, or conversely, be victimized by bullies.  Child victims of domestic violence lose much of their capacity to concentrate and thereby learn.  Their trust in adults has been damaged, and can take months, sometimes years to restore. 

On top of the immediate effects of homelessness due to violence, children face increased risk of developmental and physical impairment.  Limited nutrition and poor health care are just two of the many instances that are a direct result of homelessness.  It is a severely stressful situation for children to leave not only the abusive parent, but their homes, their pets, their belongings, and their familiar neighborhood where many of their friends live and community activities are held. 

Moving from place to place and living with other family members, friends, or at a shelter, no matter how accommodating, does little to create feelings of well-being and safety. Stability and keeping to a routine is critical for healthy growth and learning. 

Here is where a stable school environment can help alleviate many of the harmful effects of domestic violence and homelessness.  By providing a safe place for children, a sense of routine and regularity, supportive adults and students, nutritious meals, basic health exams, and afterschool activities, schools are doing far more than just providing an education for our students.  Service providers have long been aware of how schools are an important resource in safeguarding our child victims of domestic violence.

Submitted by: Eckie