Homeless Students Pushed to Succeed

Dallas school system bolsters children without a fixed address

March 25, 2011

Teachers at Arlington Park Learning Center have high expectations for all of their students - including those who are homeless.

This past summer, single mother Angela Arnold moved halfway across the United States, from North Carolina to Dallas, Texas, with her 9-year-old son Jordan. A veteran mortgage lender who'd been laid off, she expected to quickly find a new job here, where the economy’s better. So she rented a room by the week in an extended-stay motel. That was more than six months ago.

When she enrolled Jordan in her neighborhood school, Arlington Park Learning Center’s counselor told her she was considered homeless.

"I’m like, 'Homeless? What do you mean homeless? I’m not homeless,'" says Arnold. "And, like I said, 'I’ve never been put in a situation such as this.' He said, 'Well it’s a homeless program you’re in because you don’t have a permanent address, you don’t have a residency. I thought ‘Wow, OK.’"

Arnold is still looking for work while managing with her unemployment check. She is one of more than 100 Arlington Park parents considered homeless. The small school with 246 mostly black and Hispanic students sits close to Interstate 35, a busy highway. The county hospital, a women's shelter and several extended-stay hotels, where the rooms have small kitchens, are also nearby.