Word: homelessness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Right now, nearly 1 in 10 children attending public school in Minneapolis is homeless. Read that sentence again...
...Wall Street tries to right itself, the global economic crisis is punishing many of the youngest Americans. Preliminary nationwide figures indicate that there were nearly 16% more homeless students in the 2007-08 academic year than in the previous year. And the number of homeless students continues to climb as more parents face foreclosure or the unemployment line. Of some 1,700 school districts surveyed this fall in a separate study, 69% said they had already counted at least half as many homeless students during the first few months of this academic year as they...
Over the past two decades, Minneapolis' 33,000-student district has seen a steady increase in the number of homeless kids, as the Twin Cities area has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs and the supply of affordable housing has dwindled. The recession has worsened the problem: between July and December, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) tallied nearly 20% more homeless students than during the same period the year before. Perhaps out of necessity, the district has become a national model for how to identify what it refers to as "highly mobile students" and ensure that their education is not interrupted. Case in point...
Still, measuring homelessness is tricky, partly because of varying definitions of what constitutes homelessness. It is especially difficult to gauge homelessness among children, since many teenagers are reluctant to identify themselves as such, and evade formal counts by living independently on the streets or in vacant apartments with friends. This is compounded by the scarcity of housing options for children over age 12, particularly boys, who are typically barred from entering shelters with their mothers. So any gauge merely offers a glimpse at the problem's severity. The report's researchers based their analysis on a broad definition of homelessness...
...consequences of homelessness are profound. Homeless children are twice as likely as other children to be "retained," or held back, one academic year, or to be suspended or, ultimately, to drop out of school altogether. School districts across the country report a growing share of students who are "highly mobile" - who move multiple times within a school year. With each move, experts say, such students are at risk of falling some six months behind, or more, in their studies. Roughly one-quarter of homeless children have witnessed violence. It isn't surprising, then, that nearly half of such children suffer...