SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Despite years of trying to end homelessness, the number of homeless children in California, and the Bay Area, is at an all-time high. California has 20 percent of the nation’s homeless kids. More than a quarter million of them go to school even though they don’t have a permanent place to live.

Playtime looks normal in the schoolyard at Bessie Carmichael, a pre-K through 8 public school South of Market in San Francisco, but it may come as a surprise to learn that 116 of this school’s more than 600 kids are homeless.

“One in five students experiencing homelessness in our country live in California. It is a massive problem in our state,” says Shahera Hyatt, Director of the California Homeless Youth Project.