This happens for several of my students. It often happens that they get a
new job and are on call and can't have any control over their hours. We try
to work with them to work a few weeks and then approach the manager asking
them whether they can have class hours guaranteed to them. It's in the
manager's interest to make a better employee to have them learn English,
etc.

The other reason we lost a couple of people this last year was domestic
violence and general chaos in the family. Again we try to work with people,
but this is often more difficult. A woman in the extreme crisis of being
beaten, moving out (or having husband move out and getting a restraining
order), trying to figure out finances/agencies/jobs, etc., simply has no
energy left to make it to class. One woman moved out of state for a while,
intending to return to us when she returned to the state, but was then
unable to. The other dropped out of the program for a couple of months but
then returned.

We've also lost people because they've moved. The other characteristic of
this population is that they are move around a lot. If they move out of the
county (and many of them don't have a concept of counties -- we're not all
that far from a county line), we have to figure out whether we can still
serve them or whether they can transfer to another program.

In any case, once they are actually enrolled in our program, we do
everything we can to help them stay with it for long enough to do them some
good. Conversely, once they've been with us for five years (as one family
has been) and/or they really achieve their goals and are ready to move on
(whether they recognize that or not), we encourage them to leave. This is
sometimes even more difficult. But that's another story.

-------
Sylvan Rainwater  mailto:sylvan at cccchs.org
Program Manager Family Literacy
Clackamas Co. Children's Commission /  Head Start
Oregon City, OR  USA
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nifl-pli-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-pli-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf
Of ttweeton at comcast.net
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 8:37 AM
 
Maybe the reasons  boil down to  just simple economics.  Life is tough for
poor people . The reason my students come and go, they tell me, is that they
MUST work. <SNIP>