Statistical information and families.

The article presents the paper "The National Census of Homeless School Students," by D. MacKenzie and C. Chamberlain from the December 1994 issue of the journal Parity. The authors presents findings from the first national census of homeless school students, which was carried out in the final school week of May 1994. The National Census identified 1948 Government and Catholic secondary schools across Australia, and 99 per cent of these schools completed a census return. Fieldwork was also carried out in 100 schools in order to gain "on the ground" knowledge about the situation in different schools. The Census enumerated 10,440 homeless school students across the country. The authors stress that policies directed towards early intervention must focus on schools, as these provide an institutional setting where young people can be reached before they become deeply involved in the "homeless" subculture.