Childhood Poverty in Cincinnati: Moving from school to school hurts learning

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The start of school is an important time; meeting new friends and learning new lessons are two critical part of any student's success.

Now, imagine if you needed to move your child to several different schools every school year. That's what happens to many families living in poverty. The impact that has on children cannot be underestimated.

There’s nothing quite like the first day of school; a time to look back and look ahead. Although sometimes, it's hard to look beyond fears. Carson Elementary in Price Hill has 800 or so students, Pre-K through sixth grade. Day one means learning the ropes, the rules, and the procedures. But the students at Carson do have another problem… a big problem.

Ninety-five percent of them are below the poverty line. And low income children change schools a lot. In a middle or upper middle class suburban school, it's a big deal if one or two kids move into or out of a classroom in an entire school year. But in an urban school like Carson, it's not unusual for one or two kids to move in or out of a classroom in a week. And that's not just kids moving in and out of the school.

Margie Dimuzio, a fifth grade teacher at Carson, said, “By the end of the school year, probably a third of my class, at least a third of the students, probably will have left.”

“I would say almost half of the students come and go, and it's extremely disheartening,” said first grade teacher Kim Kemen.

Disheartening because moving is disruptive to learning. And it's poor kids who move the most; parents losing jobs, finding jobs, kids moving in with grandma, some children living in homeless shelters.”

Principal Dr. Ruthenia Jackson said, “It's really sad to know that our kids struggle and some of them don't know where they're going to go home at night.”

And when you worry about even having a home, getting your homework finished may fall by the way.

Kids who frequently change schools are more likely to fall behind. One university study by the University of Chicago showed kids who changed schools four or more times by sixth grade were about a year behind their classmates and it's not just academics.

Dr. Jackson said, “It impacts discipline. The behavior. Many times with kids who move a lot, behavior issues arise and we have to address those.”

These are not excuses, they're realities in an urban school.

Kemen said, “These first three weeks before Labor Day, we don't hand a lot of things out, we don't do any of those types of things because of the mobility rate. We wait until after Labor Day to see who's going to be here, but even then students are moving in and out.”

Nobody gives up at Carson Elementary, quite the opposite. Teachers work even harder with the kids because they never know who'll be there today and gone tomorrow.

Local 12 News will check back at Carson Elementary several times over the rest of the school year to see how many children have come and gone and see what can be done to help those children keep up with their academics and their social skills.

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