By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.-Area school officials are grappling with a recent report that significantly inflated the number of district homeless students.
Districts statewide, like Brandon contend with youth who lack a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence, live in a shelter, or temporary homes, a motel, a car, a campground, or on the street. The number of students identified as homeless is necessary to determine if special assistance is required.
The Oakland Schools, which represents 28 county school districts and tracks the number of homeless students countywide, reported 138 homeless students in the Brandon School District during the 2016-17 school year.
Following the recent publication several district officials disputed the number.
“We have 15 homeless students,” said Superintendent Matt Outlaw.

“Fifteen comes directly from our enrollment office as they number we submitted to the state.”
Similarly, 138 homeless Brandon students were reported for the 2015-2016 school year, and 98 students were reported in the school year 2014-2015.
Outlaw estimates that for the 2016-2017 school year, the district had 28 homeless students, so the number has dropped for the 2017-18 school year. This is determined through the enrollment process.
“The homeless information that The Oakland Press published was incorrect,” said Outlaw, regarding a recent printed story. “We have 15 homeless students. Oakland Schools gave them the false information.”
The data for the student report was generated by the Oakland Schools for their 2016-2017 district report. Their homeless student services education program reported that they served 138 students in the Brandon district during that school year.
“I went back to our homeless department and they pulled the numbers that Brandon had submitted for the 2016 to 17 school year and what they submitted to MDE (Michigan Department of Education) and what we have is 41 students,” said Amanda Holdsworth, director of communication services at Oakland Schools.
Holdsworth said the error was a typo in the graphics department, and that they are aware of the issue but it has not been corrected on their website, though the number from Oakland Schools does not match the one from Outlaw, and it is unclear as to where an error was made and on whose part.
Outlaw also says they don’t know where exactly that information came from or why it was reported that way.
Students who are considered homeless are determined by the following criteria, as stated by Outlaw:
nChildren and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals;
nChildren and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings…;
nChildren and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
n Migratory children…who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in the first and third categories.
“At the end of the day, we are separate organizations,” said Outlaw.
Though the number reported is incorrect, there are still students struggling in poverty.
“As for helping out, churches and charitable organizations do so much to help those in need,” he said. “ Supporting those these causes can go a long way to help.”