The first day of school is Wednesday, August 20th.
Frederick, Md (KM) Frederick County Public Schools will open for the 2025-2026 academic year on Wednesday, August 20th. The Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership (SHIP) will be there to help any student who is experiencing homelessness. “And we work with students in the schools, meeting them on site in their home schools throughout the year,” says Melissa Muntz, Executive Director of SHIP.
The US Department of Education says there are 1.5 million public school students nationwide who are experiencing homelessness. SHIP says as of July, 2025, over 1,000 youths who attend Frederick County Public Schools are experiencing homelessness.
Muntz says keeping up with school work is important to these young people so they can get out of homelessness and be successful as adults. “We want to make sure that their attendance stays up; they’re able to get to school regularly; they’re completing their school work. But they’re also building outside skills,” she says.
But that’s not always easy. Muntz says these students face many challenges, especially if they’re not sure if they’ll have a place to stay when the school day is over. . “So they also struggle with transportation. which means they often can’t—even if they are able to afford or access food benefits—it’s very difficult to get there because they don’t have transportation that’s reliable. They might be staying in a place that doesn’t have bus access, and that can be very challenging,” she says.
SHIP works with these students so they can keep up with their classes. “One issue can definitely lead to other issues,” says Muntz. “Often when we first start working with a young person, they have many, many needs. And
we want to work with them to make sure they are checking those needs off, but still focusing on that bigger pictures, and that next step, and what we can we do to help get them out of homelessness eventually.”
That could include helping high school seniors apply for college. “They put a big emphasis on really walking them through that process because for many that’s the launch point. They’re going to a four-year school where they can live on campus,” says Muntz.
For any student whose family is in danger of falling into homelessness, and wants to get help from SHIP, Muntz urges them to contact their school’s guidance counselors.
The phone number for SHIP is 240-415-8971. The organization’s e-mail address is info@ShipFrederick. com. The website address is shipfrederick.com.
By Kevin McManus