The National Center for Homeless Education reported that Texas is the location of 10 percent of the country’s homeless youth; 93,000 students in Texas school districts report experiencing homelessness, per the Texas Network of Youth Services.
However, a local investigation found those schools may be adding to the problem.
An investigative report from Houston Landing — examining state data, annual school discipline reports as well as interviewing former students — revealed Texas school districts have a record of illegally suspending students. Why is it “illegal,” you ask? The report cites a 2019 state law which bans schools from issuing out-of-school suspensions to students with known housing insecurities if the incident in question did not involve weapons or violence.
Districts identified include the Houston Independent School District, which has a 22 percent Black student population, and the Beaumont Independent School District, which has a 59 percent Black student population.
The report acknowledged how tricky to whittle down the exact number of illegal suspensions for a number of reasons, including students becoming homeless after a suspension. However, youth who spoke to the paper told reporters that the discipline led to serious academic and life consequences.
“If I didn’t miss as much school as I did for the simple things, like being bullied, I probably would have graduated with a 3.0 or 4.0. Ultimately, school wasn’t hard. It wasn’t the math, it wasn’t the science, it wasn’t algebra, it wasn’t geometry. It wasn’t none of that. It was like, literally, the stuff that I was facing mixed with the administration,” 25-year-old Brandon Williams told Landing.
Data reviewed by Houston Landing suggests the districts are practicing suspensions at two-thirds the rate they were before the law was even signed and sealed. Despite the violations, the news outlet finds there has been no enforcement to the law from neither school officials nor lawmakers.
Read more from Houston Landing:
Despite the repeated violations of the 2019 law, the Texas Education Agency has not investigated or sanctioned any districts that broke the rules.
TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky said the agency can only launch investigations into misconduct allegations in response to complaints from the public. State regulations do not require the agency to enforce the suspension law, but they do give the state’s education commissioner — who leads the TEA — broad power to start an investigation when they determine “necessary.”
When presented with the Landing’s findings, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, state Rep. Eugene Wu, D-Houston, said the Legislature should change the law during next year’s session. Wu said the Legislature “laid out clear direction in the law” but left out enforcement measures, allowing districts to skirt it without consequences.
All hope isn’t lost, though: Some measures have been taken in support of these youth.
For example, local legal organization Texas Appleseed took initiative to back a 2019 bill, allowing homeless youth to bypass all fees associated with obtaining legal documents such as an ID or driver’s license.
However, that organization, along with others, are still working to secure rights for homeless minors as well as pulling on legislators to enforce laws to protect homeless youth. As of now, there are still thousands of students in limbo.