GREENFIELD — The school department is feeling the pinch from a federal program that mandates it pay for the transportation costs of homeless students either in or out of district.
Greenfield has spent $90,000 this fiscal year, which is $50,000 more than was budgeted.
Superintendent Susan Hollins said the problem with busing homeless students is that their numbers are unpredictable and therefore, difficult to budget for.
Hollins said Greenfield is not alone in the problem of budgeting for an unpredictable expense.
It appears, though that Greenfield is seeing the biggest increase in homelessness and that might be because many of the social services agencies the county’s homeless seek are in Greenfield.
Other Franklin County school districts are expected to spend more than they did last year on busing homeless students, but the increases are not as great as they are in Greenfield.
Those districts include Athol-Royalston, which spent $39,564 last year and is expected to spend $49,790 this year, and Gill-Montague, which spent $7,025 last year and is expected to spend $10,000 this year, according to state records. The Orange schools spent $10,935 last year and expect to spend $12,000 this year.