INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Some school districts around the Kansas City area are seeing more and more students living in shelters, sleeping on friends’ couches and packed in small rooms.
Dee Hurt, school counselor at William Chrisman High School in Independence, said there are 47 homeless students at her high school and 750 homeless students in the district.
"We spend a lot of time every day just making sure those students receive the services that they need,” Hurt said. Those services can include transportation to and from school, which offers its own challenges because Hurt said where the students are sleeping can change day-to-day and week-to-week.
Zachary Zumwalt is a senior at Chrisman High School and is one of those homeless students.
“We were living with family and the conditions there were not very good,” Zachary said. “We were all living in a small compacted trailer and it was me and my mother and three other people in one room. Needless to say you can't fit five beds in there so three of us slept on the floor and two of us in the bed.”
But over the summer, his mother kicked him out.
“We had a difference of opinion and she was battling her own issues,” Zachary recalled, “so she said, 'don't come home' and said, 'I don't want to see you again.' I didn't know what to do.”
He said he “kind of wanted to give up.” But he didn’t, and his cousin gave him a place to stay.
“She actually set up a little space for me in a little room,” Zachary said. “I share a space with my 13-year-old cousin, but he is not that bad. She provided me a bed and she provided me the necessities to keep on living during such a hard time.”
By The Numbers
A few districts are reporting fewer homeless students this year than last, but many are watching the numbers climb.
For example, in Kansas City Public Schools, the district is serving 852 students this year. For the 2010-2011 year, the district reported serving a total of 1,117 students.
Independence is another district that has seen a drop.
This year the district reported 750 students that were homeless and last year, compared to 846 students district-wide a year ago.
But Raytown School District saw a rise. Last year the district reported 66 students, this year 137 students were reported not having a place to call home.
In Kansas, the State Department of Education compiles the data from all districts.
Here is the breakdown from the past two years.
2010-2011
119 districts reported they had identified 8,996 students
7,824 doubled up (living with another family)
692 in shelters, transitional housing, or awaiting foster care
84 Unsheltered (cars, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailer, or abandoned buildings)
396 Hotels/Motels
214 Unaccompanied Youth (Grantee Data Only)
831 Students with disabilities (Grantee Data Only
2009-2010
126 districts reported they had identified 8,452 students
7,197 doubled up (living with another family)
646 in shelters, transitional housing, or awaiting foster care
90 Unsheltered (cars, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailer, or abandoned buildings)
519 Hotels/Motels
208 Unaccompanied Youth (Grantee Data Only)
1,054 Students with disabilities (Grantee Data Only)
There are groups like KidsTLC, ReStart and Synergy who have departments dedicated to helping homeless youth. At least three times a week the organizations are out on the streets trying to connect with anyone that’s young and homeless.
We spent a couple hours with the outreach team one morning, as they handed out brochures and information trying to make sure anyone who needed help received it.
Here is a link the KidsTLC website for more information click here. http://kidstlc.org/what-we-do/kids-in-the-community/street-outreach-services/
Zachary’s Story
In Zachary’s case, he is achieving. This year he took on a heavy workload. He spent hours applying for scholarships and is now getting some recognition.
Zachary was chosen as one of only 104 high school seniors nationwide to receive a Horatio Alger National Scholarship. The scholarship is designed to help high school students who have faced and overcome great obstacles. It is a $20,000 scholarship that can be used at any public or private university in the country. Zachary is the only national recipient for the entire state of Missouri. Click here for more details: http://tinyurl.com/7adce8s
He is also a finalist in the competitive UMKC pre-med program.
"I want to be a surgeon. It has kind of been a dream of mine,” said Zachary. “I am tired of failure; I am tired of seeing so many people fail and the failure of my family. I am like a first generation college student, seeing people going into low end jobs thinking they can’t go into anything else is ridiculous."
Part of Zachary’s scholarship also includes an all expense paid trip to Washington DC in April to accept their awards at the Annual Dinner.
Zachary said the most important thing he has learned this year is to ask for help.
“People don't realize how many resources are out there for homeless and unaccompanied
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