BOISE -- Social workers with the Boise School District say the increase in homeless students this year is "astronomical." And it's not just Boise schools.
All the major school districts in the Treasure Valley are seeing an increase in homeless students, which is creating a new set of challenges for educators.
There are 345 children who attend Taft Elementary School in Boise, and 30 of them are homeless.
Nine-year-old Dakota makes a home out of building blocks. It is something he and his little brother Ethan don't have right now.
"We lost our own home back in September," said Michelle Whiteley.
Michelle Whiteley and her boys are one of the hundreds of families in the Treasure Valley without a permanent home. The problems began for Michelle when she lost her job.
"I've always done whatever I can to make sure that I wouldn't end up in this situation and then it did happen. What do you do? Especially when you don't expect it," she said.
Michelle's family now lives with her 19-year-old son and his girlfriend in their two-bedroom apartment. "Doubling-up" and "couch surfing" becomes the way of life for so many homeless families.
"They go from home to home to home so that they have a place to stay and keep a roof over their children's heads," said Scott Crandell, Community Resource social worker with Boise School District.
It is the new kind of homelessness that Treasure Valley schools say is on the rise. The numbers so far this school year are staggering and are on track to surpass last year's.
Right now, there are 818 homeless students in Nampa schools as compared to about 1,000 a year ago. In Caldwell there are 149 homeless students, while all of last year there were 239.
With less than half the school year done, Meridian School District reports 270 homeless students compared to 464 last school year. And 644 students in the Boise School District are homeless, compared to 791 all of last year. Half of those kids are under the age of six.
"At the rate we're going now we have the potential of getting close to a thousand by the time we come to the end of the school year, which is astronomical," said Sherry Tipping, Homeless Education Consultant for Boise School District.
In the Boise School District, Tipping said teachers are trained to look for signs of homelessness. Social workers then help families with resources for assistance. The goal is help provide consistency and stability for the students.
"Those families do move around a lot, which is hard on the kids," said Tipping. "Four to six months is what the research shows the kids lose academically every time they change schools."
Michelle does her best to provide a sense of normalcy for her boys, but doing so is a challenge when she doesn't know what tomorrow will bring.
"When your four-year-old asks you when are we going to get our own home, that bothers you," she said.
The Boise School District works with families to keep children in the same school they started in at the beginning of the year -- a way to provide that consistency -- when so much of their world is changing.
