In 2023 more than 10,000 Minnesotans experienced homelessness. The youth included in these numbers not only have to navigate the challenge of shelter, they also face obstacles in maintaining a connection to the school they attend. Dr. Stephanie Burrage works to ensure that transportation is not a barrier to their education.
Burrage is the CEO of Collaborative Student Transportation (CST). They transport homeless and highly mobile students to school. Their goal: “To make sure that [students] are getting the education that they deserve to have,” says Burrage. “Their situation in that moment in time should not hinder that from happening.”
A few months ago, as chief equity officer for the State of Minnesota under Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flannigan, Burrage says she had the best job of her life. Then her grandchild was faced with health challenges.
“I had to step away to help family,” she says. “And anyone that knows me [knows that] family is always my first place of support.”
Like many Americans, while helping with her grandchild, Burrage also had elderly parents who needed assistance. “I was just not able to handle the role of chief equity officer and manage the help at that time,” she explains. Her current position gives her flexibility and time to meet the needs of her family while maintaining her connection with students.
The Steward B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was signed into law by President Ronald Regan in July 1987. It was one of the first attempts at legislation to address homelessness for adults and children.
It was renamed the Mckinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act after the death of Minnesota Rep. Bruce Vento, a former St. Paul school teacher. Vento was a leading supporter of the bill that required school districts to address barriers to school enrollment and attendance for students facing homelessness.
“We are not just Minnesota-based,” says Burrage, who notes CST also has locations in Florida, Nebraska, Tennessee and Michigan. “We are a national company, and our headquarters are based here in Minnesota.”
An October 2023 three-year study from the Wilder Foundation found that 10,522 individuals experience homelessness in Minnesota on a single night. “An estimated 13,300 Minnesota youth on their own experience homelessness over the course of a year.” Of those, there are “an estimated 5,800 minors age 17 and younger on their own.”
But Burrage says that homelessness doesn’t always present itself in ways people are likely to define it. “It could be that a student is living with a parent, and they have to go and live with grandma. They are then defined as homeless.”
If the student is displaced in a home outside the district where they were living and going to school, the two districts must work together to provide transportation. “[The student’s education] should not have to be disrupted [because they] have to go to another school based on the situation that their family may be in,” says Burrage.
CST is one of the companies a district may contract with as a service provider for students who qualify for transportation services. Though they have buses, they generally use vans as faster ways to transport five students or less.
Homeless students can include those who are living with extended family members or friends while their parents or guardians are going through stressful situations. They can also include students who are runaways.
In the 2021-2022 school year, the National Center for Homeless Education reported that 125 students defined as homeless and enrolled in a Minnesota school district were migrants, and 3,136 were “unaccompanied homeless youth.”
“There are multiple reasons why students end up in a situation of being displaced from their home,” says Burrage. “The purpose is to ensure that the student’s education is not compromised because of their situation.”
Burrage says homelessness affects all communities; the larger the school district, generally the bigger effect it will have on the district. And like most social issues, “There is definitely a greater impact on communities of color.”
Burrage spent most of her career in education, so her current position allows her to maintain involvement in supporting students. The position “fits who I am as a person. I’m grateful to be able to serve in spaces that for me touch my heart.
“I’ve always believed in…making sure that we are helping the most neediest of our students,” says Burrage, “so that they are not losing their basic need to be educated.”
Vickie Evans-Nash welcomes reader responses to vnash@spokesman-recorder.com.