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Community Corner

In Case You Missed It: School Districts Cope with the Financial and Social Toll of Homeless Students

Number of homeless students rising in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park

A team of InvestigateWest reporters and researchers collaborating with Patch local editors spent the last several months looking at how Washington is grappling with a growing population of homeless students -- even as budget cuts further slash their ability to meet their federal obligation to help those students.

Among the findings statewide and in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park published last week: 

  • In the 2009-2010 school year, schools reported 21,826 homeless students statewide, up 30 percent from the 2006-07 school year.
  • Within school districts with the highest number of homeless students, districts saw increases in the number of students without regular homes ranging from 3 percent to 104 percent.
  • In the 2009-10 school year, the Shoreline School District had 90 homeless students. As of April 25, the district had 105 homeless students, a 17 percent increase. And that’s up from 82 in 2006-07, according to figures from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction compiled by Investigate West. For the full story go . 
  • Identifying homeless students can be tough.
    "The biggest challenge we have is the stigma that parents perceive in self-identifying themselves as 'homeless,'" Shoreline School District spokesman Craig Degginger said.  "Some won't come forward to ask for help so unless we know, we can't help them."
  • Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts are required to identify and report homeless students and to guarantee those students transportation so they can stay at their original schools even if they have been forced to find emergency shelter outside the district. The cost to the districts to meet this mandate is heavy.
  • A small 2006 pilot study by the Washington State Department of Transportation found that while homeless kids typically had lower grades and Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores than non-homeless students, the grades and scores were better among those homeless students who got to stay in their original schools.

 

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