MANATEE — When second-graders leave Ballard Elementary each day, most go home to dinner and homework before climbing into bed.

But one 7-year-old classmate hasn’t been so lucky. She and the rest of her family sleep in their car. Except, that is, for the night they stayed in a local motel.

The girl is one of at least 810 homeless students enrolled in the Manatee County School District this year. Sarasota County schools have 925 and Pinellas has 1,348 homeless students.

“They’re kind of the unseen victims,” said Bruce Webster, executive director of Family Promise of Manatee County, which provides shelter to families with dependent children through a network of churches. “We talk about jobs, we talk about houses; well, kids don’t have jobs or rent houses, and they’re the ones affected.”

This time last year, 732 homeless students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12th grade were enrolled in Manatee schools. Although schools have only been in session for two months, this year’s number of homeless students is up by about 10 percent.

During the school year, the student homeless population increases by about 100 students each month, said Deborah Bailey, a social worker with the district’s support and intervention services. So the district expects to have about 800 more homeless students by the end of the school year, putting it on target to hit last year’s year-end total of 1,684 students.

And those are just the enrolled students.

If you include younger siblings, the grand total last year tallied 1,831 children. As of this past week, there were 943 children from birth through 12th grade who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, according to school statistics.

Of that number, the largest group is in kindergarten, with 147 students. Elementary-age children make up more than half the group, with 565 students.

“Parents are probably in worse shape when their kids are young and they are young,” said Bailey, who also is program manager of Project Heart, a federally funded program that provides support services to students and assists with school enrollment, transportation, supplies and other school-related expenses.

Students who live in shelters, motels, campgrounds or who are “doubled up” living with another family or are awaiting placement in foster care are eligible for Project Heart services.

The program, which started in 1993 and costs about $215,000, also offers emergency food packages, helps with career planning and assists with medical services. This year the program received $120,000 from the state and $95,000 from Title One funds. The money pays for services and three staffers. Most of the homeless students attend Title One schools, where a majority qualify for free or reduced price meals because of economic status.

Help with supplies, rides

The program’s most popular service is school supplies.

“We buy them uniforms, pay for field trips, JROTC, Key Club fees and things like that,” Bailey said.

Transportation comes in second. Last year, they spent more than $15,000 to get kids back and forth to school.

“The goal is to keep them in their school of origin when they lose housing,” Bailey said. That money is for bus fare and gas reimbursement.

A few local nonprofits help out with transportation, too.

Family Promise currently transports four children to school each morning. It would drive more, but the program can only host 14 people or four families — whichever comes first — at a time, said Webster, who runs the nonprofit organization on 15th Street West in Bradenton.

Sometimes, he said, it’s a challenge to get the children to keep a positive attitude and keep their grades up.

“The effect on the kid, you can always see it. There are days they just act out, you know they’ve had a tough day, or somebody at school said something,” he said.

Because of that, the nearly 600 volunteers in the program, which feeds people and transports them from church to church each week for temporary housing, step in to help with tutoring and boost morale, he said.

“All those people, as they get to know the children, are very concerned so they do everything they can to provide a regular life under the circumstances of being homeless,” he said.

Family Promise and local shelters, including The Salvation Army and the One-Stop Center, work with the district to get children enrolled.

After that, Bailey said, she gives them any advice she can.

“Many times they call and say we’re on the verge of eviction and can’t afford the rent,” she said.

So she tells them to call 211 to find rent money and gives them shelter addresses.

If they have to sleep in their car because the shelters are full, she tells them to go to the One-Stop Center to shower and to eat lunch at Our Daily Bread, inside the center on 17th Avenue West.

“We see them coming through because their parents are coming through, and we try to connect them to Project Heart and also Whole Child Project,” said Adell Erozer, executive director for the Community Coalition on Homeliness, which oversees the center.

Run by Manatee County, Whole Child provides services to homeless people with children younger than 5.

One-Stop also has a free clothes closet for adults and children.

‘Just plain sad’

In the end, advice is all Bailey can give.

“It’s just plain sad,” she said. “We do what we can, but it doesn’t solve the underlying issues of why they’re homeless. Especially if their parents don’t have a job.”

Like Tammy Major.

The 40-year-old disabled mother moved to Bradenton from Anniston, Ala., to “get away from troubles up there” and start a new life for her family — a 13-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter. On Friday she enrolled her children in the district. Her son now attends Harllee Middle and her daughter goes to Southeast High.

The single mom, whose husband died 13 years ago, had been staying with friends in Vero Beach, but space was tight so she brought the family to Bradenton because she has a close friend here. For now, the trio stay at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel on U.S. 41.

But Major only receives $697 a month in disability and the hotel costs $262 a week, so she has no clue how she’ll make ends meet without ending up on the street.

“I’m trying to figure that out from day to day,” she said. “We’ve got food right now. As long as my kids have food, I’m OK.”

Back at her office Friday at Harllee Full Service Center on Ninth Street East, Bailey spent time trying to contact the mother of the 7-year-old homeless Ballard Elementary student who’s been sleeping in the family car.

“I don’t know if she has any siblings and I’m trying to find out, but she hasn’t called back,” she said.

The girl’s mother, she said, is pregnant.