Homeless Students Top One Million, U.S. Says, Leaving Advocates 'Horrified'

[Igel]

6. Full report.

http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/data_comp_0909-1011.pdf

They don't define "homeless students," whether they have to be reported homeless during the period that they're enrolled, or for how long the homeless lasts. Usually these reports want to be conservative and give the greatest number possible--why minimize the problem?--and would assume that if you're homeless for a night you're homeless.

Some students--those not yet in foster placement--are homeless but sheltered. Most are doubled-up. Something like 5% are unsheltered and 18% in shelters.

I've known lots of homeless students by that measure. But none of them have been in that 5% unsheltered,l which is the stereotypical "homeless" (albeit 1/20th of the data). One was in a shelter, but she'd never go into a foster home. Most doubled up--but a few were in temporary ("transitional&quot housing while waiting for their permanent digs. (In one case, two of the kids were waiting for their new, permanent, $350k house because it wasn't done when the sale on their parents' old, $250k house, closed. It pays to remember the definitions of terms when using them.)

Homeless kids are a problem. This tries to give the highest possible number, lest a kid be left out.