"Education a Right for Homeless Kids" Says Advocate ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) - Western New York advocates for the homeless gathered in Rochester Wednesday for their annual symposium. The keynote speaker was Diane Nilan, who traveled the country interviewing homeless kids, to create the film "My Own Four Walls" for her nonprofit HEAR Us.

Several years ago, Nilan sold her home and moved into an RV, traveling to dozens of states to interview kids all over the country about their experiences with homelessness. She says her film started out as a tool to teach schools about the rights of homeless students under federal law, but expanded into a way to help communities see families that are often invisible.

Nilan says some families don't know the rights of homeless children.

"Homeless children can be enrolled in ... either the school that they were going to before they became homeless or the school near where they're staying temporarily. And homeless students are defined as those who are either ... in the shelter or living on the streets, or who have lost housing due to any sort of hardship."

Nilan says the nation's 1.5 million homeless children are also entitled to assistance to succeed in school. That can range from transportation to get to school to supplies for the classroom.

She says she's expecting that communities haven't seen the worst of the explosion of homelessness following the mortgage crisis.

"We have yet to see the extreme fallout of our nation's economic woes, and it saddens me that the kids are the ones that are going to be suffering from the misdeeds of some adults."

If families find themselves homeless and need help getting their kids to school, Nilan says they should ask to speak to the school's homeless kids liaison, or call 800-308-2145.



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