Homeless kids neglected

From EndCanadianPoverty.ca

• Date: Oct 1st, 2007
• Source: Toronto Star
• Link to article: Homeless kids neglected

"Every year about 3,000 school children in Toronto live in homeless shelters, says a new study to be released today. Yet despite this long-standing problem – the number of affected children has remained steady for the last five years –there are no government or school board policies to ensure the educational and emotional needs of these vulnerable children are being met, says Lost in the Shuffle, the first Canadian study on the issue.

"As long as governments allow family homelessness to continue, it is necessary to understand the educational experiences of homeless children and to put in place the supports they need for educational success," says the report by Toronto's community social planning council and Aisling Discoveries Child and Family Centre.

Some parents go to great lengths to shield their children from the dislocation that comes with homelessness. Estelle, a 40-year-old mother of four who spent 11 months in a women's shelter in 2004 and 2005, travelled by bus three hours a day with her daughters, then four and five years old, so that they could continue attending school in their old neighbourhood."