For much of the spring of last year, the Blue Star Motor Inn, in Westerly, was home for the Jordan family. The Providence Journal / John Freidah

Hundreds of Rhode Island children woke up in temporary housing, from shelters to motel rooms, and headed off to school this year to join their more fortunate classmates.

Nobody knows exactly how many children with no permanent address were in the public schools at any given time this year, but their presence in some districts was significant

The state Department of Education just released the count for the 2007-08 school year — 746, a 43 percent jump from the year before. In the wake of record foreclosures and layoffs, those close to the issue are certain the total was even higher this year.

More than half went to class in just five districts: North Kingstown, Providence, Middletown, Warwick and Westerly.

“It’s really bad,” says Janet Pichardo, director of Family and Community Engagement with the Providence school district. In Providence, the number of homeless students more than doubled this year to more than 300.

Increasingly, schools are acting as early safety nets for this difficult-to-identify population.

Some tutor students before and after school, give out backpacks and clothes, and connect families with community services.

In North Kingstown, school officials help about 140 students a year, many of them living in transitional housing at the Crossroads apartment complex on Navy Drive.

The district provides tutoring, referrals, school supplies, clothing and mentoring.

“It’s pretty significant,” says Donna L. Thompson, the North Kingstown schools’ liaison for the homeless. Last year the district had 11 homeless students in kindergarten.

In Providence, Pichardo has served as the liaison for several years. She’s asked families in homeless shelters if they have children in the district’s 45 schools.

This year, however, she taught 305 teachers how to identify and help such students.

Do they sleep in class? Are they without a book bag or pens? They could be homeless.

“It makes sense to provide teachers with the same knowledge I have,” she says. “They are in the schools. They talk to the parents and students. They can see the red flags.”

Many families have lost their homes through fires, evictions or foreclosures. Others have been hard hit by job losses. The state’s unemployment rate, over 12 percent, is among the highest in the nation.

The student homeless numbers for the 2008-09 school year won’t be tallied until later this year, but most officials expect the population grew, in part because of the bad economy.

Even last year’s numbers are probably low, because officials only count those homeless students identified by teachers and administrators.

“It’s pretty difficult to track,” says Pichardo. “A student may be homeless for a day or they may be homeless for three months. Also, parents aren’t out there announcing they are homeless. For some, it is very shameful.”

UNDER FEDERAL LAW, students are considered homeless if they lack “a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.”

Some live in motels, tents or cars. Others bunk with relatives or friends, live in short-term housing or are awaiting foster care placement.

The lack of stability hurts, experts say.

According to some studies, children who move often are twice as likely to repeat a grade, and are 50 percent less likely to graduate from high school than their peers in stable housing.

Many struggle with hunger, exhaustion, abuse and insecurity.

Minochka Lopez remembers living for months with an aunt, after her father died. Lopez was 9 when she, her mother and two siblings slept in a living room in a Providence house with five relatives, including noisy cousins. “I never had a quiet place to do my homework,” says Lopez, who now works at McAuley Village, a transitional housing complex on Niagara Street in Providence.

“Not knowing where you are going to sleep at night creates a severe disadvantage” for a student, says Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count. “The lack of a safe place at night, a lack of nutrition, the lack of a good night’s sleep and a lack of consistency in a student’s schedule … all are directly related to their ability to pay attention in school.”

Depression is common, says Cicely Dove, director of family housing at the Crossroads homeless shelter in Providence.

“Children worry if their parents will find a job or a permanent home. It’s extremely traumatic. There’s a lot of anger at the parents, at society. There’s blaming and guilt.”

CONGRESS established the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 2001, after receiving reports that many homeless children were not attending school.

The act provides states with money to help schools enroll students and ferry them to school, sometimes in buses or taxis.

In May, the state Education Department ordered Newport officials to keep three students in the district through the end of the school year, after their mother moved to a homeless shelter in Providence last December.

For a while, the mother sent her children to school on a RIPTA bus from Providence.

Newport Supt. John H. Ambrogi became concerned when the students arrived early or late, missed days or fell asleep in class. He thought the students would fare better in schools closer to Providence, where the mother eventually found housing.

But the state ruled the students were better off in Newport’s schools, and ordered Newport and Providence to handle the transportation duties.

“We always look at the best interests of the child,” says Kim Chouinard, homeless-education coordinator for the state Department of Education. “We look at the length of the commute, school start times, getting home, and maintaining a student’s health and well-being. We try to minimize any academic disruptions, which is always the priority.” No Place To Live

Number of homeless

students in the 2007-08 school year:

North Kingstown: 139

Providence: 119

Middletown: 86

Warwick: 74

Westerly: 53

Rhode Island’s growing homeless student population

2005-06: 345 homeless

students

2006-07: 521

2007-08: 746

Source: State Department

of Education

pdavis@projo.com