A principal lost his job after helping a homeless student. He has no regrets.

After 31 years in education, one choice cost an Ohio principal his job – it's a decision he says he does not regret.

As principal of Lakota East High School in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rob Burnside sought different ways to engage with his students. Years ago, he would wear goofy-looking pants on Fridays just to get kids to talk to him.

"First time I met him is when I seen him in the hallway and I was like, 'What's up, Mr. Burnside?'" student Landerius Hayes told "CBS Mornings." "He just dropped everything, smiled at me, and he was like, 'What's up, DeDe?'"

Hayes, who is also known as DeDe, was just another kid who said "hi" in the hallway. But that all changed in his junior year.

Unbeknownst to Burnside, Hayes was struggling outside of the classroom. He was homeless.

"My mom, I couldn't live with her because it wasn't really safe to live with her," he said. "And my dad, he had some issues going on."

He said there were times he would sleep in the car with the heat on because it would be too cold in the mobile home where his father lived.

During his junior year, that private struggle became public when a letter arrived saying that Hayes' mother had a new address, and because it was outside of the school district, he had to withdraw from Burnside's school.

Most principals would have processed the paperwork and moved on. But Burnside started asking questions instead. The district's answer was no – Hayes could not attend school.

"He can't be here. He doesn't have a parent who has an address. The parent resides elsewhere. He needs to go where the parent is," Burnside recalled.

Burnside said he went home and told his wife, Angel, about the situation.

"The first words out of her mouth were, 'Well, he can come stay with us, if he needs to,'" he said.

It wasn't the first time. The Burnsides had already adopted two children.

"We said, you know, 'God, if this is your will for this young man to be in our home,' you know, 'make it clear,'" Burnside said. "Like five minutes later, my phone buzzes, and I look at it, and it's a message from him: 'Hey, Mr. Burnside.' And I grab it, and I look at my wife and say, 'I think we just got our answer,' and he's been in our house since then."