A new report shows that while the number of homeless students in the state of Oregon declined, the Hermiston School District saw an increase in homeless students during the 2012-13 school year.
Forty-six students in Hermiston – less than 1 percent of the student population – were identified as homeless during the past school year, up from 33 students the previous school year. Still, the percentage of homeless students in Hermiston is lower than the overall statewide average of 3.2 percent. And the 46 homeless students in Hermiston during the 2012-13 school year is down significantly from 74 students identified as homeless during the 2010-11 school year.
The decline is expected to be the result of a more accurate accounting method, which deleted duplicate student counts when homeless students moved from district to district.
For the current 2013-14 school year, the Hermiston School District has identified 39 students as homeless. Homeless is officially defined as children and youth who are minors lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes children and youth who:
• are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
• are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• are living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• are abandoned in hospitals;
• are awaiting foster care placement;
• have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings
• are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
• migrant children and youth (as defined under NCLB Title IC – Migrant Education) who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described above.
For additional information on student homelessness in Oregon, view the Oregon Department of Education report.
