While the economic downturn has appropriately become the top priority of policy makers, one element of the crisis has gone largely unnoticed: its impact on children and youth. Largely due to the economic and housing crises, many school districts across the country report increases in the number of homeless students in the classroom. "The Economic Crisis Hits Home" presents the results of a survey of local homeless education liaisons conducted by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) and First Focus between October 24 and December 10, 2008. Based on these findings, the report also presents policy recommendations for the new Administration and Congress, as well as practice recommendations for schools and community agencies. Survey Questions are appended. (Contains 24 notes.) [This paper was written with the assistance from Patricia Popp, Amanda Tuma, Jeremy Rosen, Julia Isaacs, and Michael Linden.]