School District Plans Residence for Homeless Students
Posted by on May 14, 2007
SCHOOL DISTRICT PLANS RESIDENCE FOR HOMELESS STUDENTS
Homeless students struggle to attend school. Some miss class for a few days. Some never come back. Now, in what may be a first for a U.S. public school district, Superintendent Linda Henke is looking to open a group home and get homeless students to school each morning, homework each afternoon and family dinners nightly. National experts and state officials say this may be the first time a public school has committed dollars to start such a home. “It’s a wonderful precedent,” said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth in Washington. School officials often try to find housing for families, she said, but she doesn’t know any who have decided to spend public education dollars for such a cause. The need is large, David Hunn reports. A recent report to Congress said more than 100,000 U.S. high school students were homeless two years ago. Yet Duffield and others say that number vastly underestimates the problem. Homeless teens don’t admit they’re homeless, she said, or may not go to school at all. The schools underreport the numbers, too, she said.
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