on homeless students:

‘Tidal wave’ of homeless students hits schools School

Districts across U.S. struggling to pay for needs of uprooted kids

Many of us in the Blogosphere knew that it was on the verge of becoming epidemic as a series of diaries written by teachers started appearing at many Blogs concerning these kind of issues as as far back as December:

Soooo, I was just doing my regular job, today. That's where things fell apart thanks to the real pain of our Main Street meltdown hitting real children.

For my 8th graders, some of my kids didn't get an 80% (mastery) on the Forms of Government test. As per my usual routine, I gave up my lunch and offered a LUNCH BUNCH study time and test re-take opportunity. One student arrived early sans lunch. I was busy gathering up lab equipment off tables from my 7th grade science class, so I wasn't looking at my early student as I said, "Hey, go on and get your lunch. You can eat while we do our Rapid Study Technique before the re-take."

I could feel the silence and non-movement of my student. So, I turned and looked. There were tears on the table beneath his bowed head. I pulled up a chair and asked, "Family or friends." Silence. That meant it was a family issue. Probing gently, I got, "Mrs K., both my Mom and Dad got laid off and our house ... our house. I was too worried to ask for a check for lunch money, and I'm too embarrassed to ask for the P&J lunch." When he said "our house," it came out like a moan.

For a while... Our kids were living this nightmare. It is breaking my heart to know that some kids may not be as lucky as ours were and could end up in shelters, moving in with relatives or, even worse, living in Bushvilles - the tent cities that have popped up across the nation as more and more Americans become homeless.