They may doze by day because they can't sleep at night, when hacking and wheezing strangers surround them. Lacking laundry facilities and at-will access to showers, they find it difficult to stay clean and easy to get embarrassed. City Park Elementary counselor Lynette Hess tells of one girl who became suicidal this year and had to be hospitalized. She was threatening to jump in front of a car. With three shelters in its attendance zone, City Park has the Dallas school district's highest concentration of homeless children - a fifth to a quarter of the approximately 250 students, says principal Anna Galvan.
Teachers can start the year with one class and end the year with a whole different set of children.
In a more recent innovation, PTA meetings are being conducted at some shelters, giving women more incentive to participate in their children's education. And some young moms, barely more than children themselves, are being steered into GED classes. What strikes City Park observers is that many youngsters somehow are able to cope with their desperate circumstances, and that many seem mature beyond their years. Their mother stresses the importance of education to them, and the boys talk of careers as doctors and lawyers. The Thompson siblings and their mother came to the Austin Street Centre in early October.