Mobile Classroom for the Homeless : Education: For children who move around too much to regularly attend school, a specially equipped van brings school to them.

December was the last time 11-year-old Jeremy Lee was in school.

During two days of classes, Jeremy barely had enough time to learn his teacher’s name before his family had to pick up and move again. Since then, he and his two sisters have been without a home or a school.

“Usually, my classroom is wherever I put my books or where I can write straight,” Jeremy said. “I kind of forget what it’s like to go to a real school.”

On Friday, Jeremy and his sisters went back to a real school again with the help of Orange County’s first mobile classroom, a slick, custom-made van equipped with school desks and three computers.

The county’s Department of Education, which purchased the van several months ago with federal grant money, is now trying the classroom out on the road. County officials say the mobile classroom is the first of its kind in the nation.

Dubbed the “Classroom on Wheels,” the 23-foot-long van will be driven to homeless children throughout the county as part of Project HOPE--Homeless Outreach Program for Education.

In the past, teachers Ann Robinson and Susie Liberman visited children in their own cars, often keeping books and school supplies in the trunks. They have tutored children outside their families’ motel rooms, on top of picnic tables, in restaurants or any other place that was semi-quiet. One time, Robinson visited a child at a warehouse where his father had found temporary work.

“Some of the kids have never ever stepped into a school before in their lives,” Liberman said. “They see the classroom and think it’s heaven-sent.”

Project HOPE was started in December, 1989, to reach out to homeless youngsters whose families are not able to enroll them in school, said Red Balfour, principal of the Community Home Education program. Advocates for the homeless say that 20% of the estimated 10,000 homeless people in the county are school-age children.

A year ago, county school officials began applying for federal grants for the mobile classroom with the help of state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach). The grant was awarded last October for two vans. The second van should be completed in a few months.

The one now in operation still smells of new leather and new carpeting. Polished wooden cabinets, filled with computer software, pencils and paper, line the walls. And to keep furniture from colliding when the van is moving, the chairs and tables are bolted to the floor, under which books are kept in a secure storage space.

The computers are also locked into place on the tables. And there is an electric generator carefully hidden behind a wall. There are even a few luxuries, like a microwave oven and a refrigerator, where snacks are kept for the children.

Robinson said that on one of the van’s first trips, she visited a 6-year-old boy who was awed by the Classroom on Wheels.

“He touched the chairs like he was petting them, and he said, ‘I’m the first one to ever sit in this chair,’ ” Robinson said. “I felt how important it was for him to be one of the first kids in this classroom.”

Drawings by the children have not yet been taped on the cabinets. But they will be shortly, Robinson promised.

“This classroom is for the children,” she said. “It’s going to look like any other school in the county.”

During a recent visit, Jeremy Lee and one of his sisters, Suzanne, 9, rushed to the computers as soon as the doors opened. Right now, the family lives in a motel in Anaheim, where they are looking for permanent housing, Jeremy’s mother, Stacy Lee, said.

“They’re very smart kids, and it kills me when I can’t get them to a regular school,” she said, watching her children tap out answers on the computer screen. “I see a classroom like this and it’s beautiful. All they want to be is normal.”

Jeremy said he misses regular school. But he also admitted that he feels different because the other children tease him.

“They called me ‘poor boy, poor boy.’ And they all had these Nintendo games and other expensive toys,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t like that part of school. But I miss other stuff, like having a friend and having books to read.”

Most important, Jeremy said, the mobile classroom means a chance to keep up with schooling.

“It’s been hard moving around like this,” he said. “I miss too much math and reading. But this feels great. I feel like I’m at home.”