While Oregon’s population of homeless students is up overall from last year, in every school district in Central Oregon, the number of homeless students declined, at least slightly.

A report from the Oregon Department of Education released Tuesday examines the number of students who “lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” The most recent data, from the 2015-16 school year, show Oregon’s number of homeless students exceeded even the level seen during the recession, with 21,340 public K-12 students considered homeless.

Bend-La Pine Schools had a total of 576 students who were considered homeless in 2015-16, down from 680 the previous school year. Similarly, Redmond School District had 393 homeless students in 2015-16, compared with 543 in 2014-15.

In Central Oregon, like other rural communities, homelessness may look different than it does in urban areas, especially in the cold winters. People may be homeless even if they’re not seen sleeping on sidewalks, or camping. The state Department of Education represents the students in different categories depending on their situation, including sheltered and unsheltered. While unsheltered means a student could be staying or camping outside, including in a car, sheltered means a student may be staying in homeless shelters or transitional housing. Students who are living “doubled-up” generally share housing with another family. ODE also categorized students who are living in hotels or motels or who are “unaccompanied.”

In Bend-La Pine Schools, as well as Crook County, Jefferson County and Redmond school districts, the majority of homeless students were living doubled-up. In Redmond School District, about 75 percent of homeless students in 2015-16 were living doubled-up. In Bend-La Pine, it was 66 percent.

Andi Buerger, executive director of Beulah’s Place, a Redmond-based nonprofit that helps homeless 18- to 23-year-olds, said she hasn’t seen the decrease in her daily work, but that’s probably because the program is specific. Those who get help from Beulah’s Place, which connects young adults with one of its volunteer safe houses, sign a contract agreeing they will get a job. Beulah’s Place helps the young people find one, usually in fast food or retail.

The program emphasizes the importance of education, too. The contract also requires the young adults graduate from high school or complete an equivalent program.

“I think it’s good that it is going down,” Buerger said of homeless student numbers in Redmond.

Her nonprofit program generally helps a handful of young people at a time because that’s what it can afford. But there are many more on the street that she also reaches. They are essentially on a waiting list for the program, Buerger said.

Most Central Oregon school districts’ percentage of homeless students went down only slightly. Bend-La Pine Schools percentage of homeless students in the total student population moved from 3.97 percent in 2014-15 down to 3.29 percent in 2015-16, for example.

But in one small district — Culver — the percentage of homeless students is less than half of what it was the year prior. In 2015-16, 7.66 percent of students were homeless, a significant drop from 18.85 percent in 2014-15.

Rural areas may feel the impact of homelessness as a result of unemployment, too few family-wage jobs or lack of affordable housing, according to an ODE news release. Students with difficult life circumstances have a tougher time in the classroom, the department’s deputy superintendent, Salam Noor, said in the same release.

The state received $613,967 in federal McKinney-Vento Act funds. The McKinney-Vento Act’s Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program assures homeless youths are provided a free public education. More than 75 percent of the federal money went to school districts in the form of competitive grants, according to ODE.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, kfisicaro@bendbulletin.com