Pablo Perez needed cash. With his father in jail, 21-year-old Pablo was the sole support of his three young siblings. It wasn't even close to payday and he had just a few dollars left in his pocket after paying bills and the cost of his transportation to work. He tried to sell some possessions, but the pawn shop wouldn't take them.

"We're almost at the end of our rope," he said. "We'll have to stretch our food."

For the next few days, Pablo's nine-year-old sister went to school hungry.

"It's frustrating," said Rosario Agostaro, superintendent of Rondout Valley Central School District. Agostaro spent four 15-minute "weeks" as the fictional Pablo during a poverty simulation workshop at Ulster BOCES on February 6.

Sponsored by the Mid-Hudson Leadership Institute at Ulster BOCES Instructional Services and presented in partnership with Capital Region BOCES, "Poverty: Breaking the Silence" brought together more than 50 school administrators from three counties for an interactive and immersive experience in the challenges of living at or below the poverty line.

Participants were divided into 12 "families" of varying sizes and ages, each with an individual set of personal challenges that ranged from unemployment to single parenthood to illness. Each family was tasked with providing food, shelter, utilities, and other basic needs for four weeks, each lasting 15 minutes. To do this, they needed to interact with businesses and community agencies that included a supermarket, a pawn shop, social services, daycare center, check-cashing service, and others.

"It may feel like a game, but it's not," said Valerie Kelsey, Director of Career & Technical Education at Capital Region BOCES. "The scenarios are real and the object is to sensitize you to the daily reality of life in poverty."

As each of the families progressed through the one-hour "month," the pressures and stresses of having limited resources became clear. During the second week, only three of the families fed their children. Only a handful of families were able to feed their children for the entire month. Some parents could not access any services at all because they lacked the funds for transportation. One family came within seconds of eviction. Several young children were taken away from working parents who left them home alone. Teens turned to selling drugs or stole from their parents to buy clothes and electronics. Others robbed their neighbors. One father held up the bank at gunpoint just to get some cash.

Words like frustration, anxiety, worry, and stress were common.

"This is exhausting," said one participant as she moved among the organizations and businesses, only to be cheated by the check-cashing service, stymied by cold social services staff, and faced with not having childcare when the daycare center closed because of a lice outbreak.

In a debriefing following the simulation, Kelsey reminded the administrators of the effects of poverty on the people they serve each day: children. Hunger and constant stress impair cognitive function and can lead to emotional problems. Parents facing dire financial problems also have little energy or time to become involved in what's happening at school.

"Do you see how quickly school becomes irrelevant?" Kelsey said when a show of hands revealed that not a single family had asked their kids about homework or their day in class during the entire month.

The simulation had a powerful impact on the participants.

"The level of stress and balancing shifting priorities was a rude awakening," said Maria Rice, superintendent of New Paltz Central School District. She called the simulation "very well done" and "time well spent."

"They did a really great job teaching us about the stress of poverty," said Debra Hogencamp, principal of Duzine Elementary School in the New Paltz Central School District.

Agostaro said the role of Pablo Perez led to frustration and anxiety as he tried to care for three young children with limited resources.

"It puts you in the direct impact and direct decision making," Agostaro said of the simulation. "It was outstanding."

The Mid-Hudson Leadership Institute will continue providing professional development around the theme of student poverty at its annual Summer Leadership Institute in late June.