A program called “School On Wheels” is helping parents get what their children need to keep up with their classwork online.
INDIANAPOLIS — (Note: The names of the mother and son in this story have been changed to protect their identities.)
Many kids would agree with Neal Long that e-learning “feels weird. I’m not used to having my face in a screen all the time.”
But for many families, it’s not about the differences, it’s about the hardships. The economic impact of this pandemic has meant uncertainty for many parents, uncertainty about where their next meal is coming from, uncertainty regarding job security and, for the majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, that can easily become uncertainty over housing.
T. Long was working in security and was finally getting back on her feet when the pandemic hit. She had a steady job and had saved up enough for an apartment while staying at a friend’s house. But then the schools closed.
Child care “was not a barrier until schools closed. And then daycares closed down and people didn’t even want to watch your kids in their home at that point,” she said.
Without childcare, T. lost her job and soon found herself in a housing crisis.
At first she lived in her car, but she was not about to let her son’s education take a back seat.
“I didn’t want, after this is over and we try to adjust to normalcy, to also have the added pressure of trying to catch up in school when you were way ahead of the curve,” said Long.
Her son is a third grader and reads above his grade level. Neal’s favorite subject used to be math and now he loves reading. His curiosity is unquenchable. After hearing the adage that cats have nine lives, he googled and read that in fact cats only have one life, but are quite agile.
At the end of his second grade year when the pandemic initially hit Indiana, the school provided all students with Chromebooks. But finding an internet connection was another issue.
“I didn’t have the money to pay my phone bill and have a hotspot for him, so we would have to look for places where I could find free internet, and drive up to a parking lot, or a friend’s house who I knew. We were pulling up to restaurants,” said T.
Like many families going through a housing crisis, T. ended up going to a hotel.
“Being in a hotel made it easier to do e-learning because of the internet. (But) staying in a hotel had a daily bill over my head and zero income. I had to hustle and find odd jobs,” said T.
Now in stable housing, T. is working to get back on her feet again, and with the help of a program called “School on Wheels,” she was able to get her son what he needed for the new school year.
T. said School On Wheels provided all the basic school supplies she needed, including books, pencils, crayons and paper, but more importantly “they gave time,” she added.
School on…
Read More: E-learning challenges for Indianapolis families dealing with economic hardships