As student homelessness grows, little is known about how the timing and duration of homeless experiences shape K-12 outcomes. Using Los Angeles Unified School District administrative data, the authors examine whether these temporal dimensions of homelessness predict students' achievement and attendance. The authors find that homeless students…

The McKinney-Vento Act Homeless Assistance Act, including revisions made during the reauthorization in Title IX, Part A, of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) and its implications are not as widely known as they should be among educators and administrators. The McKinney-Vento Act defines homelessness as any student without "a fixed,…

Students experiencing homelessness spend their nights in various settings, including shelters, with friends/families (doubled-up), motels/hotels, and unsheltered contexts. Yet there is limited quantitative research on how educational outcomes vary by residential context. We analyze data from over 400,000 students in Houston Independent School…

More than 1.5 million students experienced homelessness in the 2017-18 school year, but teachers receive little guidance on how to support them. Earl Edwards provides K-12 (particularly high school) teachers with an overview of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and concrete recommendations for how to better support youth experiencing…

Homelessness among U.S. K-12 students has been on the rise for decades, and it shows no signs of slowing down, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to significant unemployment. Joseph Bishop describes findings from a study of student homelessness in California. Interviews with those experiencing homelessness and those who serve…

Undocumented students face many challenges while trying to navigate through the K-12 educational system. This article emphasizes the educational and personal challenges and traumas this vulnerable student population faces. Using the ecological systems theory (1977) developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner as a framework, two student vignettes will be…

Using multicultural children's literature is one way to help preservice teachers build cultural knowledge and awareness about diversity. Another possible practice, not commonly used, is the addition of emerging technology in conjunction with conventional instructional approaches. In this article, we reviewed incorporating a lesson about…

This study examined publicly available data from the Institution of Education Sciences (IES) survey of school leaders concerning modes of instructions offered and subgroups prioritized during the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked: Do national data regarding instructional modes (i.e., remote, hybrid, and in-person) during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal…

In this qualitative case study, we employ 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Drawing on Small's notion of organizational embeddedness, we find that COVID-19 fundamentally altered school and…

Homelessness remains a national concern impacting the lives of many individuals and families. We examined the relationships among participating school counselors' self-reported multicultural self-efficacy, empathy, training, and knowledge and skills supporting students experiencing homelessness. Results of a three-stage hierarchical multiple…

This qualitative study explored the experiences of 23 school counselors in addressing the needs of students experiencing homelessness. Phenomenological analysis revealed two overarching themes: (a) school counselors as the first line of support and (b) the desire to help while feeling helpless. Findings suggest that participants feel underprepared…

The current Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which contains the most recent reauthorization of the McKinney Vento Act (M-V), places a focus on homeless youth that is intended to facilitate access to K-12 education, higher education and eliminate barriers in-between the two. Through each reauthorization of the McKinney Vento Act since its…

Through engaging in interviews with 10 local educational agency liaisons, this study provides insight into their roles, challenges, and training in serving children and youth experiencing homelessness. Using thematic analysis to analyze transcripts, common themes were uncovered. The findings highlight the liaisons' challenges related to…

Parent involvement is frequently identified as a variable in student success. A gap in the literature regarding how African American parents create opportunities to engage with their children's education exist. One district's outreach to parents, and parents' responses to the outreach served as a case study for exploring how African American…

Mobile students and absent students are important subsets of at-risk students in schools and districts nationwide. As such, student mobility and school absenteeism are two challenges in K-12 education with significant policy and equity implications. Although both issues are at the nexus of schooling and society and there is an apparent overlap in…