Rutland Town principal tells Senate committee homeless students, staffing and transport strain school resources

Sarah Tetra Petzloff, principal of Rutland Town School, told the Vermont Senate Education Committee on Feb. 19 that an increase in students placed in motel and hotel programs and shortages of staff and counselors are placing sustained operational and emotional burdens on her K–8 school.

"We get them to school," Petzloff said, describing the immediate duty to enroll and transport children who arrive without records or resources. "You don't wait for paperwork. You don't wait for records from the other school. We just get them to school." She said many of the families placed in motel-style housing struggle with substance use and that staff have seen increased relapse and related safety and health problems among students.

The testimony detailed how those circumstances have led school staff to provide basic needs and services beyond instruction: supplying clothing, treating chronic head lice, arranging improvised transportation (including contracting with outside drivers) and repeatedly filing referrals with the Department for Children and Families. Petzloff said her school of about 350 students includes both affluent families and a substantial homeless population, and that many students require special-education services and aides.

Why it matters: The principal framed…