More than 1.1 million students in the United States were homeless last year, a record high, according to new data released by the U.S. Department of Education.

During the 2011-12 school year, there were 1,168,354 homeless students enrolled in preschool or K-12, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. A total of 55.5 million students were enrolled in preschool or K-12 that year, meaning nearly 2 percent of all students were homeless.

According to First Focus, a children’s advocacy organization, ‘the number of homeless children in public schools has increased 72 percent since the beginning of the recession.