Thousands Of North Texas Students Are Homeless
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Dallas Independent School District has more homeless students than any other district in North Texas.
"I can tell the ones who are really hungry, they wanted seconds. It's really evident," said Hernandez Elementary School teacher, Lisa Kious.
Kious teaches many of the homeless students who end their school day jumping off buses in front of Dallas' largest homeless shelter. Seventy-four of those children are currently living at the Dallas Life Shelter home.
"It was a very real issue; a prevalent issue in Dallas specifically," said Anna Brantley with Dallas Life Shelter.
The students are part of the more than 5,000 homeless children in school systems in Dallas, Fort Worth, Richardson and more.
At least two Dallas ISD campuses enroll higher numbers of homeless students, based on the schools' proximity to extended stay motels and shelters that accept family units.
Mark Pierce leads the Dallas district's program for homeless students with more than 3,000 homeless students there.
And to the west of Dallas, there are 2,100 homeless students in Fort Worth. The district said they had an 11 percent jump in homeless students.
Kious said in the classroom, kids are kids but the adults know some of the students carry concerns that revolve around their lives away from school.
"I would say there's an increase. A lot of calls of people looking for help."
Nationwide, the U.S. Deptartment of Education reported 1.3 million homeless are students enrolled in schools.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Latest News:
Top Trending:
