Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): It’s high school graduation season, and one of the country’s largest school districts is celebrating the accomplishments of dozens of students who’ve had a particularly difficult time earning a diploma.
They have all been homeless, which drastically increases the likelihood of their dropping out.
But as David Nazar of PBS SoCal explains, a concerted effort to help those students graduate has been paying off.
It’s the latest report for our American Graduate project, a public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
DAVID NAZAR, PBS SoCal: Nora Perez just graduated from Roybal learning center, a high school in Los Angeles. Those four years can be an uphill battle for many students. However, Nora faced a mountain of challenges. This is what she called home during high school, the back of a car, parked on a city street. It’s where Nora spent part of the night and studied after school.
NORA PEREZ: You don’t have your own room. You don’t have your own bed. You don’t even know where to shower. And it was really difficult. It was really difficult.
And it brings tears to my eye, because going through all this pain, going through all those moments, all those cold nights that I looked at my parents and saw the pain in their face.
DAVID NAZAR: The difficult road for Nora began during her freshman year. Her father lost his job, and then the family lost its house.
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