The Education for Homeless Children and Youths (EHCY) program aims to ensure that all homeless children and youths have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education provided to other children and youths, including public preschool. For students without a stable living situation, the program provides funds to support access to…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction educational programs (LIEPs) so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner (EL) status, attain…

Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 11431 et seq.; hereafter the "McKinney-Vento Act"), reauthorized in 2015 by Title IX, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act, guarantees educational rights and supports for students experiencing homelessness. The Act requires State education agencies (SEAs) and…

This brief summarizes a study of five school districts that have been recognized for their efforts to provide high-quality services to students experiencing homelessness. The districts worked hard to identify students experiencing homelessness and supplemented modest federal funds with private funding, district funding, community-based resources,…

In March, 2021, signed into law was the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) (HR 1319, Sec. 2001), which addresses the specific and urgent needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The purpose of this program (ARP-HCY), is to strengthen the efforts of state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) to…

Homelessness and housing insecurity is prevalent on college campuses and influences the ability of a student to persist in their degree program (Hallett & Crutchfield, 2017). Using a mix design and framed by the theoretical frameworks of resiliency and social justice theories, this research sought to assess the barriers and interventions, if…

Homelessness is a traumatic experience with long-term consequences, particularly for infants and toddlers in their most critical stages of development. Yet homelessness among young children is hidden. Lack of shelter, fear of having children removed from parental custody, and restrictive eligibility criteria for housing programs mean that most…

The purpose of this study was to explore reasons why adolescent youth from foster care and in special education, including those who are newly emancipated from the foster care system, have difficulty transitioning into independent living. The study was guided by one research question: What difficulties do students who receive special education…

This is the update to a brief originally published in Winter 2014. The word "homeless" typically does not bring to mind images of children and youth, but the reality is that many people experiencing homelessness are under the age of 18; some of them are a part of families experiencing homelessness, while others are youth experiencing…

Street children are often constructed as fragile individuals who lose their innocent childhood since they have to work and do not have the opportunity to play like most of their peers. Using Bourdieu's concept of field, capital and habitus, this article seeks to go beyond the existing notion of play by exploring how street children in Bandung,…

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, which included an $800 million reservation within the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to address the specific and urgent needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness, in light of the challenges of the COVID-19…

The ARP Homeless Children and Youth (ARP-HCY) program focuses on increasing state educational agencies' (SEAs) and local educational agencies' (LEAs) capacity to provide wraparound services by hiring staff, dedicating resources, and planning partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs). This brief: (1) summarizes the role and expertise…

This article describes the Building Early Links for Learning (BELL) initiative in Philadelphia, PA. BELL looks to promote resilience in young children staying in emergency housing for homeless families. The goal is to make the settings more responsive and supportive to children's developmental needs as they adapt to experiences of homelessness and…

This Research-to-Policy Resource List identifies resources in the Research Connections collection published in 2010 or later that examine access to and utilization of early care and education by children in families experiencing homelessness, early childhood programs and practices that are designed to address their specific developmental needs,…

This study explores the educational experiences and needs of college students experiencing homelessness from the St. Louis metropolitan area. Research has shown that youth experiencing homelessness have difficulties entering college, remaining in college, and graduating from college (School House Connections, 2020). Difficulty accessing services…