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Jessi Wilkening
The Issue
Over 1.3 million children in the united States are homeless and this number continues to
grow every year. These children's education is negatively impacted and this is shown by
their performance in school. Often times homeless youth struggle in school because of
many factors relating to their physical, social and mental health outside of the school day.
While many communities and school districts are starting to take action and try to solve
this problem, we still have a long way to go to make sure that all children get an equal
they have no transportation to school so they have very poor attendance rates
1. Homeless Children Do Not Have a Stable Place to Live
The National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty has found that there has been
a major increase on restrictions about living on the streets. This causes families to
have to move around more often to stay out of legal trouble which causes them to
Some families are able to keep their children in school but not the same school
district. This causes students to have trouble making friends which leads to them not
age of 12 and almost 25 percent have witnessed acts of violence within their families (Hinkley,
2016).
Exposure to violent acts does not help with children's brain development. Traumas such as
violence can flood a child's brain with a stress hormone, cortisol, and impair brain development
If a child is constantly worried about their own safety, or safety of their family members, then
they will not have to ability to focus on academic work which leads them to lower test scores.
3. Youth in Transition Do Not Have Any At Home Resources
to Help Them With Their Schoolwork
Over of all leading members of homeless families in the United States do not have
a college education and over half of that did not graduate high school (Brown,
2105, p A.1). This can be a problem for homeless students because if they need help
with their work, they have no one who can help them
Homeless students are usually not very open to others about their lack of resources so
it makes it very difficult for teachers and other adults to make special arrangements
40% (Lal, 2016). However, this may not be an option for many homeless students so they do not
have a choice but to wait until lunch for their bodies to get essential nutrients.
The lack of a balanced diet including essential nutrients can cause substantial negative impacts
Some homeless students are too preoccupied with the thought of their hunger, or thinking about
where they are going to find their next meal, that they dont have time for or they forget to do
their schoolwork.
5. Homeless Children Have No Transportation to
School
Students who are living at homeless shelters do not have any way to get to school. While many
students have access to school transportation, a family car, or have their parents drive them to
When a student does not have a ride to school, they are unable to attend class which leads to
their attendance rates dropping. Not being in classes causes students to miss essential
information. Homeless children are especially vulnerable to chronic absence and poor grades
(Thompson, 2016)."
Solutions
Increasing security at shelters