More Homeless Students Than Ever Before

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-09-08 07:04:00 UTC
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Today, over one million school-age children are kicking off the school year with a difficult assignment: returning to school without a stable home. In the past two years, the number of homeless students in schools across the country has doubled, creating acute challenges for both financially-stretched school districts and students struggling to get by.

McKinney-Vento (the major piece of federal homeless legislation) requires schools schools to see that homeless students are able to remain in their original school prior to being displaced. The law is popular among homeless advocates, since it goes to great lengths to see that homeless students do not fall behind academically amid an unstable home life.

Yet, the requirements of this law are proving strenuous for already over-burdened school districts. In many cases, the cost burdens of meeting the needs of homeless students fall on state and local governments. Thus, the heaviest burdens often fall on the poorest communities with the highest numbers of homeless students.

So what does meeting the needs of a homeless child look like? It begins with transportation. If a student is staying in a shelter or on a relative's couch, the school is required to provide transportation to the student's original school by whatever means necessary -- bus, car, taxi, or gas money. In addition, each district must appoint a "homeless liaison" to see that students' food and material needs are met, including free breakfasts and lunches, uniforms, backpacks, calculators, books, etc.

Fall 2009 is unlike any previous year; never before has the number of homeless students in U.S. schools been so high. In the past two years, the number of homeless students nationally has increased by 100 percent, according to estimates by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. And initial school reports say this upward trend is continuing. San Antonio, Texas, for example. has 1,000 homeless students enrolled -- twice as many as fall of last year.

Few would disagree that ensuring stability for homeless students is absolutely critical regardless of the costs attached. But during times like these, even the best-intentioned schools have a breaking point.

Photo from the NY Times.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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