The Christian Science Monitor

Homeless and trying to learn in a pandemic: What some students face

Eric Weingartner, CEO of the Broome Street Academy, stands by a mural, Oct. 5, 2020, in New York. The Broome Street Academy is a tuition-free public charter high school with an admissions policy that gives preference to students who are homeless, in foster care, or from low-performing schools.

Rosa Febo and her daughter, Melanie Bergos, are used to traveling for school. After they moved into a Queens homeless shelter in 2018, it would take 90 minutes to get to Melanie’s school in Harlem – two buses and two trains. They’d wake at 5:30 a.m. and get home about 9 at night, shortly before curfew. They eventually got a studio apartment in Harlem, only 20 minutes to school. Unlike at the shelter, this apartment had a table where Melanie could do homework.

But then March hit, and Melanie’s school closed along with almost 2,000 other public schools in New York City, the largest school district in the United States. Now the 2020-21 school year is in session, and parents, teachers, and students

Technology troublesInitiatives afootTouting tutors

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