Homelessness on the rise among school-age children

The number of homeless school children is rising in U.S. schools.

New Education Department statistics say 1.3 million homeless children were enrolled in U.S. schools in the 2012-2013 school year. That's an 8 percent increase from the previous school year.

School districts reported that nearly 76,000 of these students were living on their own.

A vast majority of all the homeless children were living in "doubled-up" quarters, meaning multiple families were living together not by choice. About 70,000 were identified as living in a hotel or motel.

The statistics likely underestimate the true number of homeless kids. The numbers don't include homeless infants, toddlers, young children not enrolled in public preschool programs or homeless children not identified by school officials.

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