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Cheryl Bickle offers proof to the cynics who complain that when it comes to government, no good deed goes unpunished. For the past eight years, Bickle has traveled the city, knocking on doors of homeless shelters and flophouses, searching for children who are falling between the cracks of the city's public school system. Bickle is the director of the YWCA Transitional School. Last week, state officials told her that her heroic efforts to teach the city's homeless children violate federal law. The Transitional School, located at 6433 NE Tillamook St., is funded partially by Portland Public Schools, partially by donations. It serves an average of 50 to 60 kids from preschool through eighth grade whose families live in shelters, welfare hotels or, in the case of one little girl, a beat-up car. "These kids are at the very bottom economically," says Bickle. "Their families have major problems--they've already closed a lot of doors." Now the door is being closed on the kids. Last week, officials of the Oregon Department of Education--who had never visited the school--told Bickle that the Y school is illegally segregating homeless kids. As a result, the ODE has ordered the public schools, which provide roughly a third of Bickle's $350,000 budget, to stop funding the YWCA school or risk losing millions of federal dollars. At issue is the concept of "mainstreaming"--the idea that students should attend school together regardless of individual difficulties. Mainstreaming has unquestionably been positive for kids with various learning disorders and physical handicaps. Similarly, state and local school officials prefer that homeless students be placed in traditional neighborhood schools with all other kids. As Bickle was told last week, her school "isolated and stigmatized" homeless children. Dona Bolt, who's in charge of homeless programs at ODE, says federal law prohibits segregation, and by funding a school that accepts only homeless kids, the district is out of compliance. Bickle finds the objections specious. Every child who attends her school is there by the choice of his or her parents. Parents are informed that their children may attend a variety of district schools, and they sign forms acknowledging that fact both when the child enters and after 25 days at the Y school. Like her critics, Bickle agrees that kids should go to schools in their neighborhoods--the problem is that her students bounce around so much, they have no neighborhoods. More than half of the students at the Y school have moved at least once this year, and many move more often. One family Bickle cites has moved five times in the past six months. Even if homeless parents--many of whom are battling drug addiction and other problems--could negotiate the hassle of re-enrolling kids every time they moved, the disruption of constantly being the "new kid" in class would certainly inhibit learning and socialization. In a world of flux, Bickle's school offers the children a degree of certainty. "If society can give these kids any kind of stability," she says, "that gives them a chance to make it." The Portland Y school was founded in 1990 by Joanne Carlson, a YWCA volunteer who saw a television program about a similar program in Tacoma, Wash. This year, Bickle says, more than 250 kids have been enrolled, although most don't stay long. She and two other teachers instruct roughly 50 kids at any given time. The teacher-to-student ratio of roughly 17-to-1 offers more individualized attention than is available at most city schools. The school has a large group of vocal supporters in the community. "I think the Y school is doing an outstanding job," says P.K. Wall of United Grocers, who has been involved with the school for six years. United Grocers president Ross Dwinell wrote to the school board recently, saying, "as taxpayers, when we shortchange and compromise these kids' futures, we compromise Portland's future as well." School board members are also impressed with the Y school. "It's a tremendously caring, nurturing environment," says board member Douglas Capps. "I really like the idea of the community helping to educate these kids. The school district really has to pay attention to that." Bickle needs more than the district's attention, however. She relies on its money as well. Most of the school's $350,000 annual budget comes from private donations and a small United Way grant. The Portland School District will kick in about $110,000 this year--or about $2,000 per student. By any measure, that's a bargain. Although she's providing quality, low-cost education, Bickle has an uneasy relationship with Portland school officials, who have their own federally funded program, Project Return, which brings homeless kids into public school. Chet Edwards, who runs Project Return, referred all questions about the Y school to state officials. To Bickle, the conflict boils down to philosophical differences between the Y school and Project Return, which tries to get kids into neighborhood schools immediately. Bickle thinks there is room for both approaches. "You have schools where phonics is taught next door to radical new theories, but the aim in both classrooms is the same," Bickle says. "Why can't there be more than one approach to teaching the homeless?" Bickle is not giving up without a fight. She and her supporters have contacted Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and City Councilor Gretchen Kafoury, among others. She hopes community opinion and a focus on whether the school is helping kids are the most important issues. "How can you abandon something that's been good for eight years?" Bickle asks. "That's like treating kids as commodities." |
