WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Wichita educators and social workers have counted more than 1,800 homeless children in the Wichita School District, and advocates say that number is going to keep going higher.
The U.S. Department of Education counts anyone “doubling up” or living with another family as homeless, in addition to those living on the street or in shelters. The Wichita Eagle reports that number hit 1,829 in Wichita schools on Friday, including 14 new ones identified a day earlier.
The school district’s liaison for homeless students, Cynthia Martinez, says many homeless parents want to work, and are neither lazy nor unintelligent.
She says many of the new homeless families include parents who used to work for local aeronautical companies before being laid off and losing everything.
