Joshua Ford, 18, has spent a good deal of his life homeless, moving from shelters to friends’ homes, then back to shelters. He said he has attended about 30 schools, primarily in Santa Barbara County. Despite his home situation, he was a top-performing student until 9th grade.
“I missed important tests,” Ford said of his first year in high school. “I wasn’t there at the end of the year. I got all F’s. I was really discouraged. Those grades weren’t a reflection of me.”
A new law that will take effect in January is aimed at helping homeless students like Ford by allowing them to get partial credit for school work they have done. Assembly Bill 1806 – authored by Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September – also allows homeless students who enter a new high school in their junior year or later to graduate if they complete state graduation requirements. State requirements of 130 credits are typically much lower than school district requirements, which can be almost twice as much.
[For more of this story, written by Susan Frey, go to http://edsource.org/2014/law-h...e/68137#.VDxv6vldW5V]
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