Repost | From a Seattle Homeless Encampment to a Classroom: A 10-Year-Old’s First Day of School

Editor's Note: As a former contractor with the City of Burien, Kristine Moreland’s ongoing work remains closely tied to Burien and the Highline area, making this repost especially relevant locally.

Sept. 14, 2026, 12:55 PM PDT/ Source: TODAY
by Rachel Paula Abrahamson

For a 10-year-old boy in Seattle, the first day of school was a milestone: He walked through the doors of a school for the first time in his life. Less than a year ago, he was living in a tent.

The boy, whose identity is being withheld to protect his privacy, had spent much of his childhood living in a tent with his mother, who was struggling with addiction.

In October 2025, Kristine Moreland, founder and executive director of The More We Love, a Seattle nonprofit that provides housing and other services to women and children experiencing homelessness, addiction, human trafficking and domestic violence, received a call from neighbors about a boy living at a homeless encampment near Aurora Avenue, an area where prostitution and drug activity are visible.

When Moreland found him, he wanted nothing to do with her. “He was very, very scared,” she tells TODAY.com. When she tried to talk to him, he replied, “I take my Fifth Amendment right. I don’t have to speak to you.”

“I was like, ‘What is happening here?’” Moreland recalls. But Moreland didn’t give up. She kept returning to the tent, even as the boy and his mother continued to turn down offers of help.

The breakthrough came on New Year’s Eve, when the man who had been trafficking the boy’s mother was hospitalized. The mother and son were there with him when a social worker contacted police. An officer who knew The More We Love called Moreland, and around 1 a.m., mother and son arrived at the organization’s crisis center.

The More We Love operates 27 rooms in a hotel crisis center, where women and children can receive housing, recovery services and ongoing support.

At the center, the boy began settling into routines that had once been foreign to him. He went from resisting baths to bathing every day, from staying awake all night to sleeping at night, and from eating alone to joining the other children for meals.

He also knows how to read and had taught himself through phones and YouTube.

“He’s kind of got a brilliant mind,” Jacki Schleppy, a case manager at The More We Love who works closely with the boy, says.

The adults around him knew that putting him in a classroom would be another major step.

Before school started, the principal and school counselor met with the boy and his mother and asked about his interests, what he liked to eat and what might make school more comfortable. He mentioned that he liked grapes. On his first day, the principal greeted him with a bag of them.

He was expected to stay about 30 minutes. He stayed for an hour and didn’t want to leave.

“I’m coming back tomorrow, and I’m gonna do this,” he told Schleppy.

He is starting fifth grade based on his age while educators evaluate his academic needs and work toward an individualized education program. He continues to receive behavioral health support.

Kristine Moreland and Jacki Schleppy are part of The More We Love, a Seattle organization that serves individuals experience homelessness, addiction, exploitation and domestic violence. Courtesy of Kristine Moreland and Jacki Schleppy

Some people have asked Moreland whether the boy’s presence might be disruptive for other students.

“Some people have said to me, Kristine, I’m worried about the other kids in his classroom,” she says. “Like is this disruptive for them?”

“That’s our problem with our society,” Moreland says. “That’s what you think about rather than how exciting for this little boy to walk into a school filled with kids his age that he gets to play with.”

Recently, the boy’s mother told Schleppy that he had hugged her for the first time. He held on and didn’t want to let go.

Moreland sees the moment as evidence of how much has changed, not only for the boy, but for his mother, who is in recovery and learning to parent outside the instability in which she grew up.

“She received a hug from her child, which I think is confirming that she’s doing the right thing,” Moreland says.

The boy’s story is one of many. The More We Love receives about 450 crisis calls a month with a staff of 12 and is privately funded. Moreland said calls about children living in tents come in every day.

“This is not the only one we’re dealing with right now,” Moreland says. “It’s just the one that got brought to light.”

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