The program, proposed by KY 120 United AFT and called “Safe Sleep Lots,” would model a plan installed by Cincinnati Public Schools.
“More than 300 Cincinnati Public School students do not have a place to sleep at night, oftentimes sleeping in their parents’ cars. To make that experience a little less difficult, the school district is trying a new approach. Cincinnati Public Schools is offering a secure lot for families to sleep in their vehicles on school property,” WXIX reported.
Sarah Fightmaster Bayerle, the president of KY 120 United AFT, as well as a kindergarten teacher and mother of three, made the request of the district Monday.
“With the current state of SNAP due to the prolonged government shutdown, our families are in a dire situation, and it’s more urgent now than ever,” Bayerle said. “We must do more. We must get creative. And we must be a safety net for our families and communities now more than ever,” she said.
Bayerle said her group was looking forward to hearing back from the board and scheduling a meeting.
According to Kentucky Department of Education statistics, 22,434 students across Kentucky are homeless this school year. In Fayette County , that number is 1,110.
The number of homeless students in Fayette County has been relatively steady — around 1,000 children — for several years, KDE data shows.
The U.S. Department of Education has a different definition of homeless than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development . Education officials count students as homeless if they are living with a relative or someone else due to an economic hardship, sometimes referred to as “doubled-up” or couch-surfing. Children who live in cars with their parents are also included in the education homeless count.
It’s unclear how many children in Fayette County are living in cars with their parents.
HUD, which oversees an annual point-in-time homeless count, does not count children and parents living in cars or with relatives or friends as homeless.
In 2024, the Kentucky legislature adopted a law that bans street camping, including sleeping in vehicles. There is a carve out that allows people to sleep legally on a street for less than 12 hours, but that still means people who live in their cars must move every night or risk being cited by police.
According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, from July 1, 2024 , to July 2, 2025 , there were 425 unlawful campaign charges across 30 different Kentucky counties.
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