It’s the last week of May, which means thousands of high school students are graduating, crossing the stage and stepping into adulthood while their families break the “no clapping until the end” rule out of sheer joy.
Every student overcomes obstacles on their way to graduation, but many do so while dealing with the kind of instability that most adults couldn’t cope with. According to a study by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the percentage of homeless people in families with children in Oklahoma jumped from 11 percent to 24 percent last year, the second largest increase in any state. New Hampshire reported 26 percent. A 2016 study by the US Department of Education found that 40 percent of formerly homeless youth said they either dropped out or stopped attending school.
While shelters and resources exist in every state, help for homeless youth often comes from the one place they may dread going the most: school. School districts use a framework of teachers, counselors, administrators, homeless assistance programs and outside organizations to try to help students who are dealing with the stress, instability and lack of reliable housing causes.
[For more on this story by Rhiannon Saegert, go to http://www.ardmoreite.com/news...ers-continue-to-rise]
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