Kassandra McNeary and her three children were evicted twice from two separate apartment complexes while trying to escape ongoing physical and mental abuse from the children’s father.
Although Oklahoma law protects tenants who are victims or survivors of domestic violence from being evicted, McNeary found herself with the daunting task of defending her and her children’s home in eviction court twice. The evictions came after her abuser caused damage to the property and raised safety concerns in the complex.
She argued her case, but ultimately, she lost.
When McNeary and her children lost their home, the effects rippled into all parts of their lives, including her 8-year-old’s ability to perform in school. Children facing eviction are more likely to be chronically absent and have poor academic outcomes, according to new data published by the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, in collaboration with Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Because of this, advocates argue that the child’s well-being should be considered when a family is going through the eviction process.
McNeary said that, while her 8-year-old was still in school, several factors prevented him from concentrating in class. The anxiety of not knowing where his home would be weighed on him. The pressure of feeling like he needed to be the man of the house for his little siblings was all he thought about. And the constant bullying he endured for being homeless led to him being ostracized.
8-Year-Old Man
Chronic absenteeism is not the only effect of an eviction on children. Housing instability can change the course of their lives and development.
McNeary’s 8-year-old grew up too fast. She described him as always in protective mode. He would comfort his younger siblings and remind them that this wasn’t going to be their situation forever. Still, McNeary recalled him often asking her what was next.
“I’m Mommy, so I should be protecting him,” McNeary said.
The bullying her son endured only got worse. Instances of being bullied for not wearing the right shoes changed to bullying over his intelligence when he was sent down a grade to do work in his younger brother’s classroom.
“He kind of gave up on himself,” McNeary said. “A lot of times he would get frustrated, and he would break down and say it’s too hard.”
Those experiences escalated when McNeary’s son attempted to jump from a second-story stair railing and wanted to end his life. The school responded by suspending him.
“He changed the most,” McNeary said, referring to her 8-year-old during the eviction process. “My baby is tired.”
At the time, the family was staying at the City Rescue Mission in Oklahoma City. The shelter helped McNeary enroll her children in Positive Tomorrows, a school that provides services to children experiencing homelessness.
McNeary said that was good for her children.
Eviction Effects on Children
The Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, working with Oklahoma City Public Schools, found that during the 2022 to 2023 academic year, 39% of students were chronically absent. Among students whose families experienced an eviction filing, the number rose to 64.5%.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Education reported that 28% of students were chronically absent during the 2022 to 2023 academic year, meaning Oklahoma was above the national average.
The Mental Health Association found that even the threat of eviction was disruptive to a student’s education. And, Oklahoma City Public Schools’ predictive modeling estimates that students with an eviction filing are 35% more likely to be chronically absent than their peers.
Academic results followed a similar pattern.
Just 8.3% of students with an eviction filing scored proficient in math on Oklahoma’s standardized testing, which is one-fourth lower than their peers without an eviction filing. Standardized reading scores showed an even greater disparity: 5.6% of students with an eviction filing scored proficient, a rate 56% lower than that of students without an eviction filing.
A previous Oklahoma Watch report analyzed data from ImpactTulsa, which found that high concentrations of absenteeism overlapped with eviction hotspots.
During the 2022 to 2023 academic year, Oklahoma schools reported that 24% of children statewide were chronically absent. America’s Health Ranking found that 3% of students in the state were homeless or experiencing housing instability, ranking the state among the 10 states with the highest rates of student housing instability. It is also higher than the national average of 2.4%.
An Eviction Lab report found that eviction filings put students at increased risk of switching schools, disrupting their learning. The report also found that eviction-led school transfers often meant students attended lower-quality schools. Students who faced an eviction filing were more likely to be absent than their peers and more likely to be suspended due to behavioral issues.
“There’s no question that housing disruption hurts outcomes,” Joe Dorman, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, said. “You are going to have trauma that follows that event. Not having that stability is a critical factor in development.”
Across Oklahoma, 39,858 evictions were filed during the 2022 to 2023 academic year. Of those, 15,374 were filed in Oklahoma County.
The Mental Health Association of Oklahoma estimated about 64% of households facing eviction in Oklahoma County have children in the home, said Amy Coldren, the association’s director of advocacy and communication.
Mediation
One solution for considering children’s outcomes in the eviction process has been proposed at the Capitol this legislative session by Rep. Amanda Clinton, D-Tulsa, in the form of House Bill 3386.
The bill would require mediation before litigation in the eviction proceedings if a child was living in the home.
Clinton said she introduced the bill to address chronic absenteeism, noting that housing stability was linked to absenteeism.
“Mediation can curb some of these eviction orders,” she said. “This is a free mediation tool that we are all paying for.”
Clinton herself is a landlord, and said she had landlords in mind when drafting this bill.
Still, the bill would not require mediation before an eviction was filed, and as the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma data showed, the filing is enough to destabilize a student’s education.
“Ideally, mediation would happen before an eviction is filed,” Coldren, of the Mental Health Association, said.
Dorman said the eviction filing qualifies as a traumatic event and can still derail the child.
In 2021, the city of Philadelphia implemented an eviction diversion program, which, in part, requires mediation between a landlord and a tenant before an eviction can be filed. A local survey found that half of the cities’ evictions involved a parent or caretaker. By implementing this, Philadelphia found that tenants avoided eviction filings and judgments, landlords saved money and avoided turnover costs and the courts were less strained from caseloads, according to Philadelphia’s Eviction Diversion Program.
Kassandra McNeary
During her eviction process, McNeary found herself asking, “How can you all be so inconsiderate of a mom and a newborn?”
She said she had mediation, but that it still wasn’t enough. Her landlord wanted her out.
After her family’s stint of homelessness, a traumatic experience that included sleepless nights for her, living in a car and restless children ready to leave the City Rescue Mission, McNeary was able to secure housing. Her children now have a stable place to live.
It’s exciting and scary, she said, but her children give her the motivation to keep going. She said whatever comes next, she’s prepared for and knows she and her children can handle it.
“If you survived that, this is nothing but a bump in the road,” McNeary said.
This article was originally published by Oklahoma Watch. You can see the original story here.