I saw this report on ky3 tv last night, it made me heart sick.
NIXA, Mo. -- When you think of Nixa, you think of a progressive bedroom community; a suburb of Springfield with many homes. This year, the Nixa School District believes there's almost 90 students considered homeless.
"I want a place where the kids and families can go and where they can be safe and not a statistic," said Rita Coburn, Nixa School District's executive director of Special Services.
According to the McKinney-Vento Act, if a student does not have a regular, safe, adequate night-time home, he is considered homeless. For the 2009-2010 school year, Nixa had 70 such students. It was a little higher in Lebanon where there were 85 students. Harrison Ark., had 140. The largest district in the region, Springfield, had 376 students at one point or another during the school year considered homeless.
"I think it's our economy; some families are desperate," Coburn said.Many of the students considered homeless are doubling up with another family. Others live in motels, hotels, outbuildings and cars."I'm scared for the 17-year-old; where do they go?" Coburn asked. "I don't want a suicide, or them sleeping under the bridge and become a prey to someone else.""I was shocked," Holly Beadle said about the homeless student numbers.Beadle helped form the Caring For Our Community Committee. Beadle and Coburn have been among those working on a way to get these students, and other individuals in Christian County, the resources they need to keep them from being homeless.
2 comments:
Last year a girl told us her Mom and Dad and 5 siblings lived out of the car. If they could get a motel room she was thrilled because she could take a shower. Parents locked the motel and still slept in the car as there was not enough room. Yet, the Mother was going to have baby number 6. Seemed that with neither parent working something was wrong with the whole picture. But the children still suffer.
Terrible situation!
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