Over 1 Million Students in U.S. Are Homeless

Amount of homeless students in the U.S. increased by 13 percent over the last year.

According to the Huffington Post, over 1 million students in the U.S. are homeless.

It follows the story of homeless advocate Diane Nilan who is one of the country's top experts on family homelessness.

When she heard the news of the amount of homeless students topping 1 million in the U.S., she said she wasn't surprised.

"The same story, time after time. Lost their job, had some medical problems, things fell apart, boom, boom, boom. Now they're living in shelters or motels," Nilan told the Huffington Post. "The number is horrifyingly high but it probably is half of what the number really could be if the kids could be counted."

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The U.S. Department of Education report said that 1,065,794 homeless kids were enrolled in schools in the 2010-2011 school year, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year and 57 percent since the start of the recession in 2007. Forty-four states overall saw the number of homeless students increase. Fifteen states' homeless student population increased by one fifth or more.

The report also claimed that students who are homeless do much worse on standardized tests than students who aren't.

"You don't have a permanent place to stay, you have to change schools a lot," said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth to the Huffington Post. "It sets you far behind. It's socially and emotionally disruptive."

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