A tally across L.A. County's public and charter schools counted nearly 63,000 homeless students last school year, 2015-2016. That’s about a 17 percent jump from the prior school year's count of 54,000 kids.
"Even though we're supposed to be in a better place, financially as a country, that hasn't really rolled down to our families," said Melissa Schoonmaker, homeless liaison with the L.A. County Office of Education, which collects the numbers.
A fraction of the rise, she said, could be attributed to problematic data from the prior year that led to an undercount. But more prominently, she said, it's the high cost of living in Los Angeles coupled with incomes that haven't kept up.
"If you're making minimum wage, you have to work three full-time jobs to afford 'affordable housing,'" she said.
As a result, families double and triple up, couch-surfing, staying in garages, and living in vehicles, shelters, and sometimes out on the street. That's left school districts with the challenge of providing an adequate education to thousands of kids who are constantly moving around, have stressed out parents, and may not have a way of getting to school from wherever they're staying.
[For more of this story, written by Rina Palta, go to http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/...ren-in-school-in-la/]
Comments (0)