More than 5.7 million children lived in extreme poverty in the United States in 2008--surviving on less than $7 or $8 per day. Almost 1 in every 12 children was in a household with an income below 50 percent of the federal poverty line. These children belonged to households in every state of the Union, but they were largely concentrated in the 15 states of the American South. More than 2.4 million extremely poor children--42 percent of the nation's total--lived in the South. This report raises serious questions about the impact and validity of current educational policies and practices at every level on children in extreme poverty. These children exist in significant numbers in school districts in every region and state in the country. But, no educational policy at any level today acknowledges America's large population of children in extreme poverty and the extraordinary challenges they face in education. In these hard times, policymakers and educators can help to assure that the children with the least do not suffer the most as students by adopting an informal practice of an "extreme child poverty impact assessment." This impact assessment should gauge how any major change in policy, practice, or funding in public education might adversely or positively affect the education of children in extreme poverty in their school districts and offer alternatives that could reduce any adverse impact. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [For the full report, "The Worst of Times: Children in Extreme Poverty in the South and Nation. SEF Research and Policy Report," see ED524090.]