Time is running out on high school, yet millions of students aren’t showing up to class every day. When they do make it, untold numbers are so consumed with their troubles that they struggle to learn. Others have disappeared from school altogether.

Each community has its own set of circumstances that have conspired to sabotage young people’s dreams during and after COVID-19. In Los Angeles and much of California, housing insecurity has devastated children and teens’ chances at recovery like nothing else.

“Housing is the biggest reason kids aren’t going to school or we can’t find them,” says Elmer Roldan, executive director of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, an organization that helps dozens of Los Angeles Unified schools follow up with students who are chronically absent.

Last year, two in five Los Angeles Unified School District students missed more than 10% of the school year, according to data supplied by the district.