SAN DIEGO — Students struggling with issues related to homelessness are finding help at a school in San Diego that specifically nurtures unhoused children.

When Zaira Martinez waters the plants in her school’s garden, she sees it as a starting point for nourishing her students as well. She said bringing them out here is a great way to turn bad days around.

“I tell them to pick five plants in here that you want to give extra love to,” she said. “And they’ll usually point them out like the rosemary and the kale.”

Monarch School exclusively teaches San Diego’s homeless youth from kindergarten through 12^th grade. Martinez knows the struggles they face personally. When she was a teenager, her mother left an abusive relationship and for a while they didn’t have a place to call home.

“When you’re living in a situation where survival is your biggest concern, you don’t think past a week, you sometimes don’t even think past a day,” she said.  

Martinez became a student at Monarch during her senior year of high school. She said they not only provide academic education but also critical support like clothing, hygiene supplies, snacks and mental health services. She credits those safety net services for helping her graduate college and eventually coming back as a staff member.

“My mom is in a better place now. Both of my brothers are in college. I graduated university. I’m here because of that. I don’t think I would be here where I am right now,” she said.

One of her first counselors as a student was KishaLynn Elliott. She’s worked at Monarch School for 10 years and helped conduct one of the nations’ first study on social-emotional learning for K-12 students experiencing a wide spectrum of homelessness.

“Families that have to double and triple up with other families just to be able to have a safe residence, families that are housed in temporary or emergency or even long-term shelters, families that are living in their cars, hotels and motels; and so when you think about homelessness as more than what we can see on the streets, you realize that the problem is bigger than you might have imagined,” Elliott said.  

Elliott was also in a homeless situation her senior year in high school and didn’t find stable housing until she went to college. She said many students chose to enroll at Monarch given the flexibility, security and support from students and staff who share similar life experiences. This year, the California Department of Education estimates there are 187,000 students experiencing homelessness in California alone. The San Diego County Office of Education estimates there are over 23,000 homeless students in San Diego currently.

Elliott helped conduct a three-year study by the Jacobs Institute at the University of San Diego that shows how Monarch School Project nourishes the unique social-emotional strengths of homeless youth. They found that:

• Sixty percent of Monarch students maintained or increased their feeling of safety at school, and 40% increased their engagement and maintained their feelings of belonging over time.
• Forty-six percent of Monarch students showed a positive increase in restorative mindset scores over three years, meaning they see themselves as part of the Monarch community and are learning to maintain relationships.
• Forty-eight percent of Monarch students showed positive changes in their self-esteem.

Elliott believes these results could have a major impact on how schools and parents learn how they can best support both unhoused and housed students, showing that students flourish with wraparound services and creating more success stories like Martinez's.  

“[Martinez] represents so much for me in my whole journey enrolled here, but she really represents so much for herself and the homeless population and the strength and resilience that lies within them,” Elliott said.  

Martinez hopes their work helps change how people perceive youth experiencing homelessness.

“Seeing how far we’ve gone, but seeing how far we can go from here,” she said. “What can I do today to provide equal or more support than I received?”

Monarch School serves approximately 300 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.