The Department of Education reports more than 29,000 kids in North Carolina were considered homeless in the 2016-2017 school year. About three-quarters of those are living with other families because it’s too expensive to live on their own.

Homelessness among students enrolled in schools from kindergarten through 12th grade has increased 70 percent over the last decade.

Unlike elementary and secondary school students, whose families can get some support from things like federal free breakfast and lunch programs, for college students much of that assistance dries up.

A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person’s health and how much they need the social safety net. It’s time the government’s big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.

Island School is one of 247 “community schools” in New York. These are regular public schools, with a twist. They have longer days and longer school years: Island stays open 12 hours a day, six days a week, including spring and winter breaks as well as the summer.

When schools started back up this fall, many across the country witnessed something that’s become as common on the first day as new backpacks and freshly sharpened pencils: another surge of homeless and housing-insecure schoolchildren.

Lily, a character introduced seven years ago to address child hunger, returns. This time her family does not have a place to live.

Many youth experiencing homelessness report avoiding shelters because they don’t feel safe there or can’t relate to the older adults, but they often don’t have another option.

Some community colleges have found innovative partnerships with their public housing authorities may help combat student homelessness.

Harvey — and its record rains — is long gone. But life may never be the same for thousands of children who spent the past school year — and will spend the one that just began — without a home. Their schools have been rebuilt. Their lives have not.