Number of homeless students climbs
They sleep in cars. In parks. In shelters. On the sofas of generous relatives or friends. They are the more than 1.3 million homeless children nationwide. Of that total, more than 21,000 live in Washington state, according to numbers submitted to the federal government last week. Collected by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the numbers show that during 2009-10, the state reported 21,826 homeless students, up 5 percent from the previous year and up 56.5 percent from 2005-06.