Poverty and Children

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Poverty and Children

• Julia Garten
• Consultation for Counselors

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• Two students begin their educational future on
  the same day, in the same town, and at the same
  school. Their futures look bright with each
  appearing to have the same opportunity at being
  successful in progressing through school until
  graduation. The school provides the same
  teachers, books, meals, socialization,
  activities, and opportunities to each child. Yet
  one child will have a risk 6 times greater than
  me other of dropping out of school before
  reaching high school graduation because that
  child is from a low-income family, (Johnson,
  2009).

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What is Poverty?

• Income poverty is the condition of not having
  enough income to meet basic needs for food,
  clothing, and shelter. Because children are
  dependent on others, they enter or avoid poverty
  by virtue of their familys economic
  circumstances. Children cannot alter family
  conditions by themselves, at least until they
  approach adulthood, (Gunn Duncan, 1997 ).

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• In recent years, about one in five American
  childrensome 12 to 14 million have lived in
  families in which cash income failed to exceed
  official poverty thresholds. Another one-fifth
  lived in families whose incomes were no more than
  twice the poverty threshold. For a small minority
  of children4.8 of all children and 15 of
  children who ever became poorchildhood poverty
  lasted 10 years or more
• Among children ages 6 through 11 in middle
  childhood, 42 percent live in low-income families
  and 20 percent live in poor families.
• The percentage of children in middle childhood
  living in low-income families (both poor and near
  poor) has been on the rise  increasing from 39
  percent in 2000 to 42 percent in 2009.
• Children living below the poverty threshold are
  1.3 times as likely as non-poor children to
  experience learning disabilities and
  developmental delays

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• Children living in poverty are more likely to
• Physically Experience learning disabilities and
  developmental delays Often have no health
  insurance so they lack preventative medical and
  dental care. Low birth weight, elevated blood
  lead levels, malnourished, lower caloric intake,
  vitamin and mineral deficiencies, obesity, higher
  risk for asthma, greater risk of injuries
  resulting from accidents or physical
  abuse/neglect
• Academically score lower on standardized tests,
  absenteeism, reduced IQ, learning disabilities,
  grade retention, school dropout
• Emotionally anxiety, depression, lower levels of
  sociability and initiative, problematic peer
  relations, experience peer rejection
• Behaviorally aggression, fighting, and acting
  out, disruptive classroom behaviors
• Environmentally frequent moves, job loss or low
  wage jobs, unsafe neighborhoods, experience
  violent crime, exposure to crime and or drugs,
  lack of professional role models, single-parent
  families, and fewer opportunities outside their
  community

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What can counselors do within the school
environment?

• Understanding how low income affects child
  outcomes is important for the current generation
  as well as future generations.
• School counselors have the opportunity to
  profoundly challenge and change the interactions
  between families in poverty and the educational
  system. Many parents in poverty have experienced
  previous challenges with school that have
  triggered them to become defensive when
  communicating with school personnel about their
  child. Because of the training school counselors
  receive on working with at-risk and
  low-socioeconomic populations, they have the
  opportunity to train other educators in ways that
  will reach children and families in poverty
  without further alienating them, (Johnson, 2009).

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What can counselors do within the school
environment cont

• Counselors can serve as a cultural bridge between
  families and teachers by
• 1. sharing information that counters teachers'
  deficit views of poor families and blocking
  blaming of families
• 2. modeling how to reach out to families and
  build on their strengths
• 3. mediating between the conflicting cultural
  expectations of the home and the school.
• (Johnson, 2009)

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What can counselors do within the school
environment cont

• Targeting students who display at-risk
  characteristics or at-risk factors through early
  interventions and prevention programs is the best
  way to reduce the chance that an at-risk student
  will drop out.
• General areas of concern for counselors specific
  to meeting the needs of at-risk students
  identified in the research studies were
• -providing opportunities for career exploration
• -providing small-group counseling for developing
  academic and behavior skills
• -promoting parental involvement
• -promoting school connectedness

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What can counselors do within the school
environment cont

• One key resource for success in school and at
  work is an understanding of the hidden rules.
• Hidden rules are the unspoken cueing system that
  individuals use to indicate membership in a
  group, (Payne,
• Example
• 1. Middle class rule work and achievement tend
  to be the driving forces on decision making
• VS.
• generational poverty rule survival
  entertainment and relationships tend to be the
  driving forces on decision making
• The recommended approach is simply teach the
  student that he/she needs a set of rules that
  brings success in school and at work and a
  different set that brings success outside of
  school, (Payne,
• Ex Children growing up in generational poverty
  are likely to laugh when disciplined (to save
  face) SO explain that if an employee laughs at a
  boss when being disciplined, he would probably
  get fired.

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What can counselors do within the school
environment cont

• The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the
  School Breakfast Program (SBP) are federally
  sponsored nutrition programs operating daily in
  the nations schools.
• All public and private nonprofit elementary and
  secondary schools are eligible to participate-
  almost all public schools participate
• Children receive free, reduced-price, or
  full-price meals, depending on their familys
  size and income
• The NSLP is available to 92 of all students in
  the country, and on a typical school day, 56 of
  those students to whom school lunches are
  available participate.
• (Devaney, Ellwood Love, 1997)

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• NSLP lunches are planned to provide
  approximately one-fourth of the RDA, and each
  breakfast must include a serving of fluid milk, a
  serving of either fruit or vegtable or a
  full-strength fruit or vegetable juice, and two
  servings of either bread or meat or their
  alternates. In addition, recent legislation
  mandated that schools participating in the NSLP
  and SBP meet the goals in the Dietary Guidelines
  for Americans for lower fat content in school
  meals by the 199697 school year, (Devaney,
  Ellwood Love, 1997).

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References

• Devaney, B.L, Ellwood, M.R., Love, J.M. (1997).
  Programs that mitigate the effects of poverty on
  children. The Future of Children, 7(2), Retrieved
  from http//www.jstor.org/
• Gunn, J.B., Duncan, G.J. (1997). The effects of
  poverty on children. The Future of
  Children, 7(2), Retrieved from http//www.jstor.or
  g/
• Johnson, A.F. (2009). What we know about at-risk
  students important considerations for principal
  and counselor leadership. NASSP Bulleti, 93(2),
  Retrieved from www.eric.ed.gov
• Payne, R. (1995). Poverty A framework for
  understanding and working with students and
  adults from poverty. Baytown, TX RFT Publishing