Wisconsin Seeing an Increase in Homeless Students

Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 -- 11:00 AM

(Nick Rommel, Wisconsin Public Radio) For 19 years, Robin Stuht has worked with homeless students in the School District of Beloit.

According to Nick Rommel with Wisconsin Public Radio, her current count of homeless students, 629, or 13.5 percent of the district’s entire student body, is “the highest number I’ve seen to date,” Stuht said.

It’s consistent with statewide trends. According to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, more than 20,000 Wisconsin students were homeless during the 2023-24 academic year, up from 18,510 the previous year.

The nonpartisan research organization’s count is based on numbers from the state Department of Public Instruction, and is a record high since the agency started releasing data in 2019.

Beloit has seen two waves of homelessness in recent years, Stuht explained. The first came when COVID-19 pandemic relief, like eviction moratoriums, ended.

The second has seen property management companies buy local apartments and “double or triple the rent,” pushing out working families who’ve lived there for years.

Stuht said most families find a place with friends or relatives, but local outreach workers have recently noticed a worrying trend. “Now, they’re finding little kids with their families sleeping in their cars, sleeping in tents,” she said.

Public schools use a definition of homelessness based on the 1987 federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which requires school districts to provide certain services to homeless students.

That definition includes students whose families are “living with friends or family due to a change in financial, family, or employment status,” the report says, as well as those sleeping outdoors and in hotels or motels.

Between 2019 and 2024, the report says, 77 percent of homeless students were staying with friends and relatives. Ten percent lived in hotels and motels. Shelters housed another 10 percent, with only 2 percent of students unsheltered.

The report shows a sharp increase in student homelessness since 2021. That’s mostly because of better identification since in-person learning restarted, said Don Cramer, the researcher who wrote the report.

But what’s behind the most recent increase, 9 percent over the last two academic years, is still an open question, he said.

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