ORLANDO, Fla. — There are thousands of kids in Orange County Public Schools who are considered homeless, but the district is helping provide for those kids so they can focus on their studies.
- Orange County's Kids' Closet helping homeless students
- Last year, Kids' Closet helped 419 students get clothes for school
- Want to help Kids' Closet? Head here to donate.
Kids' Closet has clothes uniforms, hygiene products, shoes, backpacks, and more for Orange County homeless students.
“Students who could be couch surfing, or they could be doubled up all due to hardship, also living on the streets, in cars or in our homeless shelters,” said Christine Cleveland, senior administrator for the McKinney Vento program.
Social workers and other school employees can request the supplies.
“We had a school resource officer who put in a request. He noticed a child walking home with holes in his shoes. We were able to get some new shoes a backpack full of clothes,” she said.
Cleveland says there are many more stories like that.
In fact, last school year more than 6,000 students were registered in Orange County Public Schools as homeless (6,238 at the end of the 2018-2019 school year).
Last year, Kids' Closet helped 419 students get clothes for school. But this school year, they’ve already helped 381 students, so the need is growing.
Cleveland says not every family who is homeless registers with the Mckinney Vento program because of the stigma — so the real number of homeless students could be much higher.
She said with recent natural disasters, the need could grow even more.
“With the Puerto Rico earthquakes, that could also increase,” she said.
You can donate gently used clothes for the Kid’s closet, but staff says they prefer it if you donate money so they can buy brand new clothes for these children. Here’s where you can donate.