Homeless School Children in California Up More Than 50 Percent from '04 to '08

June 30, 2009

The number of homeless children enrolled in public schools in California grew by 57 percent between 2004 and 2008, according to new data prepared for the U.S. Department of Education and just added to kidsdata.org. Across the state in 2008, 224,249 homeless children were enrolled in public schools, compared to 142,554 in 2004.

California, in fact, is faring worse than other states, according to a separate 2005-2006 report by the advocacy organization National Center on Family Homelessness, in which California ranked 48th out of the 50 states in the extent of child homelessness, with 1 being the best and 50 being the worst.

These California data define homeless children as students whose primary nighttime residence is a shelter, hotel or motel, who are doubled-up with another family temporarily because of economic hardship or who are unsheltered. Data on homeless public school students are collected under the McKinney-Vento Act, a part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which established this definition of homelessness.
 
These data may underestimate the number of homeless children, as they do not include children too young for school or students who have dropped out. Also, locating and counting unsheltered children is difficult.
 
Kidsdata.org also offers other measures of how families are faring economically, including data on homelessness at the county level, child poverty, enrollment in the free/reduced price meal program and housing affordability.

Contact: Andy Krackov, senior director of public information, at (650) 736-0677 or andy.krackov@lpfch.org, if you have any questions.

To sign up for monthly updates about news, events and data regarding Bay Area children, visit http://www.lpfch.org/signup/index.html.