Hundreds of students in Bibb County public schools are homeless, living in motels or with foster care families.

As homeless and foster care liaison for the school district, Danielle Jones is tasked with making sure those roughly 800 students have transportation, tutoring services, food to eat at home and clean clothes to wear to school.

“Every day is different,” she said. “I love the work.”

About 400 students in Bibb schools are homeless this year, but Jones said she expects about 200 more will be homeless by the end of the school year. Additionally, about 200 students are living with foster families.

Looking out for hundreds of the district’s most vulnerable students each year can be challenging, but Jones, who has helped 5,000 students in the seven years she’s been on the job, said it is rewarding work.

“Watching the kids succeed academically, going to college, graduating, going into the military – It’s like the end result, you know, the fact that they didn’t let homelessness stop them from finishing their high school education,” Jones said.

Earlier this month in New Orleans at an annual conference for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, Jones was surprised to learn she is the 2023 recipient of the Sandra Neese Lifetime Achievement Award.

The honor, she said, is “kind of like the highest award you can receive in our field.”

Jones, 47, has worked for the school district for nearly a quarter of a century in other roles including teacher, assistant principal, counselor and behavior specialist.

Several of Jones’s colleagues nominated her for the award and submitted letters of support to the national association.

One of the letters, penned by a Georgia Department of Education consultant, touted Jones leads the state when it comes to trying new and creative strategies to reduce barriers for and provide services to students who are homeless or living in foster care.

“Her unwavering dedication and support has led to a consistent increase in students meeting proficiency on the Georgia Milestones Assessment and students graduating from high school,” wrote Whittney Mitchell, a McKinney-Vento grants and program consultant for the state.

Lori Ward-Rogers, assistant superintendent of federal programs for the Bibb County School District, wrote that Jones bridges the gap between the schools, school employees and homeless students.

“She has been instrumental in the success of students experiencing homelessness as demonstrated by a 100% graduation rate for students experiencing homelessness for the past two school years along with having two students being valedictorian of their respective high schools,” Ward-Rogers wrote, adding that Jones has “provided support to over 4,000 students experiencing homelessness and 1,000 students in foster care.”

The Sandra Neese Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, according to the national association, “should exemplify the spirit that Sandra embodied in her work with youth experiencing homelessness.”

Neese was a founding member of Nevada’s homeless youth education office in 1988, a year after the McKinney-Vento Act was signed into law requiring public schools to immediately enroll homeless students, provide them with transportation to and from school and academic support.

Neese, according to the national association, “gave of herself tirelessly so that all children in this region may have what most take for granted: safety, shelter, and a future.” In 1999, Neese died from cancer and the nonprofit she helped form established the award to honor and recognize people like her.

Nancy Thorne Forde, director of supplemental services for Bibb schools and Jones’s supervisor, said the lifetime achievement award “speaks to exactly what Dr. Jones does.”

“She will go into neighborhoods, she is respected by those that do not have places to lay their head,” Forde said. “She will go out and use her own money to purchase what they need. They trust her. It’s like they have a language and a way of dancing and working together.”

To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].