JANESVILLE — For years, Carrie Kulinski had a couch outside her office at Wilson Elementary School in Janesville. At one point, Kulinski had a student who was sleep deprived because she was homeless and was overcome with the stress of it. Staff let her sleep on the couch and then would wake her up to go to class.
The couch is gone but the memory remains, as that is just one of the stories that Kulinski has in her 13 years as the homeless liaison in the Janesville School District.
So far in the 2025-26 school year, there have been 445 students reported as homeless in the district. DPI’s official count pegs the district at 9,088 total.
Kulinski expects there to be 500 reported homeless students by the end of the school year. That would be the third straight year of at least 500 reported homeless students and ninth since 2012-13. There were 548 reported in 2024-25. The last time there weren’t at least 500 reported homeless students in the district was 2022-23 when there were 459 students.
There were three years the district didn’t break 300, but those were during the pandemic in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 (278, 263 and 281).
Of the 445 students who are homeless, 78% of those are doubled up, which is living with others because of a loss of housing. Another 9% are in a shelter or transitional living, 9% live in a motel and another 4% are unsheltered.
Of the 445, 55% are male and 44% are female. 28% are high school students, 22% are middle school students and 50% are elementary students. Those without parents or guardians account for 7% of homeless students. The reason they are unaccompanied could be because of conflict or violence in the household, Kulinski said.
The main factors for homelessness now in the district are rises in rent and gas, and a lack of low-income housing. Another reason might be surprising.
“I’ve seen a lot more fires this year,” Kulinski said.
She also helped a family recently whose home was condemned.
Kulinski said other reasons that lead to homelessness can be caregivers who struggle with addiction or untreated mental health and are unable to provide a stable environment, people who recently relocated who have no place to live or parents being deported and kids staying in the community.
“I’m seeing a lot of working poor people have jobs but they just can’t make it,” Kulinski said.
This is an issue that the school district is doing what it can to combat, part of which is required by federal law under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, a federal law requiring that children of homeless individuals and each homeless youth have equal access to the same, free appropriate public education, including preschool, as other children and youth.
Qualifications include living in a shelter or a transitional living program, living in a motel, hotel or campground due to lack of housing; sharing housing with relatives or others due to a lack of housing; living at a public place, a park or in vehicle or RV; living in an abandoned building; a youth not living wiht a parent or legal guardian and staying with others temporarily, including runaways; a child of a migrant worker or other situations that are not fixed, regular or adequate for nighttime residence.
The benefits provided under the act include enrolling students immediately, providing school choice, providing free lunch and snacks, waiving school fees and providing transportation if they live 1.5 miles or more from their school.
Of those receiving benefits in the district under the McKinney-Vento Act, 25% are Hispanic, Kulinski said.
There are homeless students who are open-enrolled into districts in other communities, as school choice is a right students have under the act. Currently, there are 63 students living in 26 other districts outside of Janesville. That includes Wisconsin communities like Beloit, Clinton, Fort Atkinson, Whitewater and Lake Mills. But, that also includes Illinois communities like Rockford, Machesney Park, Rockton and Freeport.
In those cases, the district will have a private driver take the students to and from school.
“We say, ‘You can stay here and we can figure out a way for you to be a student here. Most of them stay in school, but then we watch attendance. If the student isn’t coming, even though I’m sending a private driver to pick them up every day, then I may talk to the guardian and say this isn’t working out,” Kulinski said.
The school district provides additional services beyond the act through donations or service club grants. Those include school supplies, driver’s education classes, gas cards for low-income families, high school caps and gowns, short-term motel vouchers for emergencies, birth certificates or funding to get identification, college application or testing fees, grocery or fast food gift cards and athletic fees.
In addition, the district has supplied weekend food bags in a partnership with ECHO (Everyone Cooperating to Help Others). The district also has what it calls “school closets,” which house clothing, shoes, winter coats and snowpants which are given to homeless students in need. If there are other barriers, then the district will try to help, Kulinski said.
The benefits are provided through community donations, which the district continues to search for.
The biggest obstacle Kulinski faces is student attendance.
“Many times the students will stop coming to school and we can’t find them. For example, they move out of state and never tell us. The families move around a lot and sometimes we don’t know where they went until we get a records request from another school district,” Kulinski said.
There are also long wait lists at places that offer assistance, including ECHO, which offers an emergency lodging program. As of late March, the Twin Oaks Homeless Shelter in Darien had 92 families on its waitlist.
“Sometimes I have no place to refer them for a place to stay,” Kulinski said.
The Twin Oaks Homeless Shelter in Darien had a waitlist with 92 families as of the end of March. The shelter is run by Community Action of Rock and Walworth Counties, and its Executive Director Marc Perry.
“We have a lot of people signing up for emergency shelter,” Perry said. “When you’re a family living paycheck to paycheck it doesn’t take much. An unexpected bill, your car breaks down, a medical bill. Anything can force you to lose your housing.
Every situation is different. For example, a 17-year-old student might have attendance issues, but they might be at a higher risk for being sex trafficked, sexual assault and situations that may lead them to give up their benefits for shelter.
“We may see more mental health issues with our unaccompanied teens, feeling more suicidal, more depression, more anxiety,” Kulinski said.
For an 11 year old, they may have attendance issues as well and that could be more sporadic as it can be more difficult to get to school.
“Maybe there’s not childcare. I’ve actually seen older elementary students babysit the younger ones so they keep them home from school to watch the younger ones,” Kulinski said.
There could be issues with heatlhcare and they don’t see a dentist or a doctor as regularly as they should, leading to more illness, which leads to more absences. There are also anxiety and depression concerns.
“Just think about the typical fourth-grader and worrying about where you’re going to stay. Just think of the anxiety. You can’t focus on school because you don’t know where you’re going to sleep that night. So, dropping grades and you’re falling behind in school,” Kulinski said.
Homeless students may be enrolled into the district by calling the new student enrollment office at 608-743-5011. For current students, each school has its own McKinney-Vento advocate who can provide services and referrals.
The district is in need of donations for its homeless youth, including socks, underwear, snowpants, food or grocery gift cards, warm and waterproof gloves, fuel-only gas cards, blankets, school supplies, backpacks and toiletries. These items may be dropped off at the Education Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St. for Kulinski.
Kulinski can be contacted at 608-743-5122 or ckulinski@janesville.k12.wi.us.
