We desire to connect with others online or in person. Unfortunately, achieving this is so much more difficult for homeless children, especially at the high school level.
As COVID still keeps students isolated in many ways, homeless students without a permanent home have to deal with two problems at the top of their day; nowhere to stay and nowhere to go. School social workers try to address these problems, but their burdens are also heavy, dealing with elevated levels of student anxiety, depression, confusion, and apathy. Homeless students are falling off the grid during this time of COVID. Some of these kids are failing classes and not going to school. Homeless students are receiving even less attention because scarce resources are thinner than ever, and as a result, the homeless student disappears from seemingly everywhere.
“According to a new survey by SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions, there has been a 28% decrease in the number of identified homeless students in the fall of 2020 compared to the fall of 2019. According to the most recent federal data, 1.5 million PreK-12 students are homeless, which indicates that roughly 423,000 homeless students have slipped through the cracks and are not receiving the support and services they need.” – source: National Education Association.
Our Clean Kids Backpack Program is so essential during this difficult time. Even in the face of seeming defeat, we continue to strive to keep homeless kids in school or at least connected in some way to help them today and in the future. Thank you for thinking about helping homeless children! Please let us know if you have any questions! Together we can make a difference!
Blessings.
