Homelessness Takes Toll On Grades

The Louisville Metropolitan Housing Coalition says officials continue to grapple with ways to lower the city’s rate of child homelessness and its effect on education.Coalition Executive Director Cathy Hinko says homeless children often change schools several times in the academic year, which leads to lower grades for them and their classmates."There's disruption in the classroom from this mobility of integrating new students into ongoing class work and into the social dynamic that has formed amongst students since the beginning of the school year," says Hinko.A national study released last week found Kentucky has one of the highest rates of child homelessness in the country.Hinko says more than seven thousand Jefferson County Public School students are classified as homeless, which includes those living with friends or relatives.