Many families today are facing foreclosure and even homelessness. Among the repercussions of the housing crisis is the negative impact on children’s ability to learn. Even though these traumatic circumstances occur outside the education system, teachers and schools deal with the emotional and behavioral problems that these children bring into classrooms every day.

 About two million children will feel the impact as their families lose their homes in the economic crisis, according to a report by First Focus, an advocacy group for families and children.  

“This housing crisis is taking away the innocence of our kids,” said Phillip Lovell, vice president of education policy for First Focus. “Kids take their homes for granted, and when you lose that, there are long-term impacts. It cripples children. It affects their education, health, and behaviors.”

Foreclosures often force families to move to rentals or to homes in other school districts where children have to start all over. “If children move too frequently they become detached and don’t want to make friends,” said Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

 Students impacted by the housing crisis are only half as likely to be proficient in reading as their peers, leading to the likelihood that they will be held back (and eventually drop out), First Focus reported. Children forced from their homes also experience behavioral problems such as increases in violence.

According to an article in American Psychologist, some families who go through foreclosure may even face short-term homelessness, which exacerbates the problems. Homeless children typically have shorter attention spans, speech delays, impaired cognitive ability, and underdeveloped motor skills. They may be prone to withdrawal, aggression, regressive toddler-like behavior, immature peer interaction, and inappropriate social interaction with adults.

School systems and teachers will be dealing with student behaviors and shortcomings associated with the housing crisis for the foreseeable future. Children caught in the whirlwind will suffer. That simply is not right and is one of the most compelling reasons for those who lead our country to put differences aside and remedy the economic crisis as quickly as possible.