A study released today by the National Center on Family Homelessness places Virginia 17th in how homeless children fare.
The ranking considered four areas: the percentage of homeless children; their overall well-being; risk factors for homelessness, such as poverty and foreclosure rates; and what the state is doing to address the problems.
The report defined as homeless any child age 18 or younger living with at least one parent or caregiver in such places as emergency shelters, motels, cars, or campgrounds due to economic hardships or losing their own homes. It did not include runaways or abandoned children.
The center estimates that 1.5 million children nationwide experienced homelessness at least once in 2005-06.
The report said Virginia had 18,214 homeless children: 8,624 in grades K-8, 7,650 under age 6 and 1,940 in high school. The number of homeless children in Virginia placed the state 31st nationally, the report said.
The report also ranked Virginia 11th for children's well-being and 20th for risk for child homelessness, and it said the state's policies and planning were inadequate.
The states that fared best in the report's rankings were Connecticut, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island and North Dakota.
At the bottom were Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana.
Texas had more than 337,000 homeless children -- just over 5 percent of all kids living in the state, according to the study.
Across the U.S., the study found that one of every 50 kids are homeless each year. The rate in Texas is probably a bit higher.
-- Wire And Staff Reports
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