The number of homeless students in the United States has doubled in the past decade. During the 2013-14 school year, more than 1.3 million students were homeless, a 7 percent increase over the previous school year, according to a new report by the advocacy group Civic Enterprises and the polling firm Hart Research Associates. A disproportionate number are students of color or identify as LGBT.
As alarming as those numbers are, the fact that figures on homeless students exist at all is a step in the right direction. That’s because, until recently, only five states have voluntarily collected that data: Colorado, Kansas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. In those states, graduation rates for this population lagged behind the rest of the students, even those who are low-income. Now, provisions in the newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the nation’s federal education law, are strengthening the visibility of homeless students and other disadvantaged groups. Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, states and local school districts will be required to disaggregate the graduation rates of homeless students for the first time in history, which educators say will help states and districts direct resources to the kids who need help the most.
[For more of this story, written by Adrienne Green, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/edu...ess-students/487370/]
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