Unaccompanied homeless youth appear to be one of the fastest growing and most vulnerable segments of the larger homeless population, but flawed information-gathering by government entities makes it impossible to be sure. This issue brief examines reasons why the plight of unaccompanied homeless youth is not fully captured through current models of identification and data collection, and how this failure of information adversely affects society's ability to help this vulnerable population. While points made and conclusions drawn are applicable nationwide, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the touchstone for many of the examples. This brief consists of a menu of findings and recommendations meant to spur advocacy, additional research, and ultimately, meaningful improvements in the lives of these children. The goal is to inspire and empower lawmakers, policy drafters, service-providers and advocates to use this information and these recommendations to develop a suite of reforms that improve the support structure for unaccompanied homeless youth around the nation. (Contains 64 endnotes.)