From Charity to Equity—Race, Homelessness, and Urban Schools

Students experiencing homelessness often face overwhelming obstacles that limit both their access to education and their prospects for success in life. The McKinney–Vento Act (1987) was created to ensure that schools provide services that support students in unstable housing situations but, unfortunately, effective implementation of important provisions continues to be elusive. In addition, adults charged with McKinney–Vento implementation in schools voice frustration with overload and lack of support or consistent resources. Through interviews with youth experiencing homelessness, Aviles de Bradley introduces readers to their remarkable resilience under fire and their determination to thrive despite the systemic inequities they encounter daily. The book also explores how poor people of color experience and interface with social institutions—namely, schools—and uncovers important connections between homelessness and racism using a Critical Race Theory framework. Readers are challenged to see McKinney–Vento implementation not as charity but as an issue of legislated social justice.

Book Features:

• Portrays how students and schooling are affected by homelessness.
• Shows how homelessness interacts with and impacts teaching and learning.
• Brings to life the personal stories and struggles of homeless youth.
• Examines school practices in light of existing federal law.
• Includes the voices of school personnel charged with supporting homeless students.

Ann Aviles de Bradley is assistant professor of education and human development in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Delaware University.

"...is an important voice in the recent discourse about homeless youth of color in the United States. Perhaps even more importantly, she contributes to the larger conversation about social justice by highlighting the intersectionality between homelessness, education, class, and race. The implications of this research are both immediate and far-reaching."

—Urban Education

"From Charity to Equity is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary work by emerging scholar Ann Aviles de Bradley. She draws on an intersectional framework to carefully examine the policies and practices that shape outcomes for homeless youth in large urban centers such as Chicago. Her carefully contextualized examinations of the racialized experiences of homeless youth of color brings a searing poignancy and richness to the work which sets it apart all the others. This book will completely transform the way we think about how to address the needs of homeless youth in our schools. Bravo, Dr. Aviles de Bradley!"
—Marvin Lynn, dean and professor, School of Education, Indiana University South Bend

"Dr. Aviles de Bradley succinctly captures a conversation many in the United States are afraid to engage in: the relationship between race and homelessness. Her research contributes to the larger project of justice in education by challenging conventional notions of educational policy formation and implementation with dexterity and care. Moving us away from charity and toward equity is a bold and necessary move in any grounded struggle toward transformative education."
—David Stovall, Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

2016 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Honorable Mention