Homeless Kids in School
As the reporting requirements and counts are refined, the reported numbers of homeless children served by our public schools has shown to level off in Pierce County during the 06/07 and 07/08 school years. Pierce County saw a 17% net increase in homeless children served during the 08/09 school year. In real numbers, that equates to over 400 additional students up from 2,467 in 07/08 to 2,880 in the 08/09 reporting period. The 08/09 school year was the second year since the beginning of the count that all school districts in the county have served at least one homeless student. Tacoma, Puyallup, and Fife school districts had the largest numeric increases in homeless children served in 08/09 with an increase of 220 (20%), 146 (82%), and 50 (83%) students respectively. The largest numeric declines in homeless children served in 08/09 were at the Clover Park, Peninsula, and University Place school districts, with -46 (-15%), -30 (-39%), and -16 (-48%) fewer homeless children served respectively . State legislation broadened the McKinney-Vento definition of children experiencing homelessness to include children in foster care awaiting permanent placement. This change makes sense because children awaiting permanent foster care placements experience very similar feelings of housing instability to those experienced by young persons who are termed homeless using stricter definitions. Children covered by the McKinney-Vento definition are provided transportation, free lunches, and in some cases, programming to help meet the needs of a family with unstable housing. |
| Source: Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) McKinney-Vento Homeless Data Collection Report |
