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<h1>Over One Million U.S. Kids Are Homeless</h1>
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<li>by <a rel="author" href="http://www.care2.com/causes/author/piperh" title="Posts by Piper Hoffman">Piper Hoffman</a></li>
<li>September 14, 2012</li>
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<div class="article_content"><p>More than one million students in this country are homeless.</p><p>The number of homeless children is actually much higher. The U.S. Department of Education, which <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/29/508909/homeless-students-one-million/" target="_blank">released</a>
the one million figure this June, included only “children enrolled in
U.S. public preschools and kindergarten through 12th grade for the
2010-2011 school year,” according to the <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-28/features/os-latest-report-more-than-1-million-us-students-are-homeless-20120628_1_homeless-students-homeless-children-beth-davalos" target="_blank">Orlando Sentinel</a>.
As the Sentinel points out, that excludes “infants, toddlers,
preschool-aged children who aren’t enrolled in public programs and
homeless children who are home-schooled.” It also excludes homeless
teenagers who are not enrolled in school. The <a href="http://www.familyhomelessness.org/" target="_blank">National Center on Family Homelessness</a> estimates that the true number of homeless children in the U.S. is closer to <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/staggering-38-increase-in-child-homelessness-in-the-united-states.html" target="_blank">1.6 million</a>.</p><p>Since the recession began in 2007, the number of homeless kids “in
public schools nationwide has increased 57 percent,” the Sentinel
reports. It may be that part of this increase is a result of efforts to
enroll more homeless children in school (as required by a federal law
called the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act), though undoubtedly
the lion’s share is due to increases in the number of homeless people in
our country. Counting the members of a population as transient (and
often hidden) as the homeless is <a href="http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html" target="_blank">notoriously difficult</a> and a perennial <a href="http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/city-activists-differ-on-homeless-count/article_c5d3d99d-29a4-5039-8e49-56b18f4ec129.html" target="_blank">bone of contention</a>
between public authorities and advocates, but one estimate, by the
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, posited a number of 3.5
million homeless individuals in 2009.</p><p>As a former professional advocate for policies to end homelessness, I
learned about the challenges homeless youth face. Children enrolled in
school are often forced to transfer schools if their shelters are in
different school districts than their homes were. Already suffering from
the disruption of becoming homeless, these students enter a school full
of children and teachers they don’t know and may face the stigma of
being “the homeless kid.” (The McKinney-Vento Act guarantees homeless
children the right to remain in their original school, as the <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/37234.htm" target="_blank">National Education Association</a> notes, but it is not always enforced and “has never been fully funded.”)</p><p>Most shelters are not suitable places to study. Families tend to
sleep in one room, which is rarely furnished with a desk and is often
filled with the student’s family members. Quiet spaces are rare. Some
homeless students do their homework on the bus or train to school, if
they manage to do it at all.</p><p>Other homeless children are “doubled-up” in the homes of extended
family rather than staying in shelters. Together with siblings and
parents, they crowd in with relatives who may be near poverty
themselves. Some children live with their families in their cars or all
together in one motel room. Again, these conditions rarely afford
students a quiet place to concentrate on their homework.</p></div></div></div><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><br>Read more: <a style="color: #003399;" href="http://www.care2.com/causes/over-one-million-u-s-kids-are-homeless.html#ixzz26bvJAL46">http://www.care2.com/causes/over-one-million-u-s-kids-are-homeless.html#ixzz26bvJAL46</a><br></div></body></html>