Economic Crisis Hits HomeWhile the economic downturn has appropriately become the top priority of policy makers, one element of the crisis has gone largely unnoticed: its impact on children and youth.

Largely due to the economic and housing crises, many school districts across the country are reporting increases in the number of homeless sudents. This report centers around a voluntary survey conducted during the fall of 2008 by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth and First Focus.

The survey found the following information in just the first two to three months of the school year:

  • 330 school districts identified the same number or more homeless students in the first few months of this school year than they identified the entire previous year.
  • 847 school districts identified one half or more of last year’s caseload of homeless students in the first few months of this school year.
  • 459 school districts had an increase of at least 25 percent in the number of homeless students identified between the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years.