In Orange County, Fla., Homeless Children Find Refuge at School - NYTimes.com

In Orange County, Fla., Homeless Children Find Refuge at School - NYTimes.com: The bus ride from the homeless shelter to Fern Creek Elementary School was, as usual, raucous. A hundred times, Doretha Brown, the bus driver, had to yell for everyone to sit down. “This noise is what holds us up every morning and evening!” Ms. Brown shouted, although the Collins girls — Brianna, 8; Tamara, 7; and Sydney, 6 — could barely hear her above the din.

A first grader and a second grader got into a fight on the 15-minute ride, and someone else threw up. Brianna, Tamara and Sydney paid no mind. As their father, James Collins, says, “To get by at a shelter, you have to focus yourself.”

This is the sisters’ second stay at a shelter, so they are becoming accustomed to being homeless. Roxanne Schreffler, a kindergarten teacher, was struck by Sydney’s arrival at Fern Creek in February. “She walked into kindergarten in the middle of the day and sat right down,” Ms. Schreffler said. “She’d immediately adapted to her new situation. There was no time integrating her into the class; she was ready to go.”

Twenty percent of Fern Creek’s students are homeless, and school is the best part of the day for many of them.