Tough Lessons for Homeless Students

As the nation struggles through a painful recession, schools in North County and the rest of the country are finding more and more homeless students in their classrooms, educators told the North County Times.

This trend is especially apparent in the Vista Unified School District, where officials counted 10 times as many homeless students this school year compared with two years ago, according to district data. However, officials there said part of the increase is because of more rigorous efforts to identify such students.

Homeless, as defined by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, doesn't just mean students living on the streets, but anybody who lacks "a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence." That would include families who are bunking with relatives or living in trailers.

In Vista Unified, the number of homeless students increased from 273 students in the 2006-07 school year to 2,542 students this year, the district reported. Vista Unified serves roughly 23,000 students in Vista, a large portion of eastern Oceanside and some surrounding unincorporated areas.

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