Sanford outreach team credits prevention work and grants for drop in McKinney‑Vento identifications

Outreach staff told the Sanford School Committee April 6 that prevention work, expanded outreach and recent grant funding have helped reduce the number of families identified under the McKinney‑Vento homeless‑education provisions compared with prior years.

Cecilia Serriani and colleagues described the outreach team's role connecting families to community services and tracking attendance barriers. The team said they served 205 McKinney‑Vento students in 2022‑23, 141 in 2024‑25 and about 119 so far this school year; staff attributed the decrease to earlier identification and stronger community prevention partnerships.

The outreach team detailed JT Gorman and Department of Education preventing‑homelessness funds used to support prevention work; staff said they have served 49 families collaboratively this year through prevention programs and community referrals, noting "the majority of those families never reached homelessness."

Staff described practical supports established through grant work — hygiene supply areas in each elementary building, a live community resource guide for families, parent coffee hours and parent education series — and attendance interventions including walking‑school‑bus programs and weekly attendance teams. They also described a restorative 'First‑Time Plan' process for responding to student misconduct that emphasizes relationship building and community service rather than automatic punitive removal.

Committee members asked for resource links and data on re‑offender rates for first‑time plans; staff said some data can be shared and the resource guide is a live document that can be pushed out to the community.

The committee praised the outreach work as sustainable and systemic and discussed continuing coordination with county agencies to support families' access to adult education and other services.