In 2022, the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Project SPARC conducted research to better understand the barriers experienced by parenting students participating in CalWORKs, California's cash assistance program for families with children. This brief highlights findings from the research on parenting students' experiences with housing.

Approximately 1.3 million public school students in the United States were identified as experiencing some form of homelessness in 2019-20. Due to their unstable living situations, students experiencing homelessness often have additional educational, social, emotional, and material needs compared to their stably housed peers. Housing instability…

In 2018, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative engaged the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University (Gardner Center) to partner with public school districts in San Mateo County, CA to examine the barriers to educational success that homeless and highly mobile students face. Given the increasing prevalence of…

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…

Some students in higher education experience food insecurity and homelessness; however, the experience specifically for social work students has not been explored. This qualitative study investigates the experiences of 16 social work students in 4-year universities who lacked basic needs and examines how their need to seek support influenced their…

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…

The Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP) in Alameda County, California blends service coordination, intensive case management, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help transition-age youth in foster care engage with available support systems and subsequently improve their outcomes. As part of a formative evaluation of YTP, Chapin Hall…

The Common Core State Standards were designed to prepare all students for college and careers. Using theories of cultural capital and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study of 54 college-bound, inner-city high school seniors seeks to determine how students perceive their college readiness during the implementation of the new standards. While the…

This report, commissioned by the Bay Area Geographic Leads Consortium, explores how five county offices of education and local school districts pivoted to reach, teach, and support the holistic needs of students experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report documents the rising number of students experiencing homelessness as…

This study explores in depth interviews of parents, teachers, and educators within the confined geographical boundary of Santa Cruz County, California in order to offer to the broader community a more concise look at the challenges families and schools face in addressing the issue of family homelessness. The current state of family homelessness is…

COVID-19 has disrupted California's education system in fundamental ways. Districts across the state are quickly creating strategies to serve all students, and many are designing their response around the needs of their most vulnerable students. This brief highlights the response of Mother Lode Union School District (MLUSD) to the COVID-19…

The goal of this study is to understand how students experiencing homelessness experience community college. In particular, the authors focus on the multifaceted traumas that negatively impact their educational engagement and persistence. The authors conducted a life history with one student experiencing homelessness on a community college campus.…

In partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and 22 San Mateo County school districts, this report and research brief explore the ways in which local students experience housing instability, and how cross-sector strategies can better identify and serve these students. This study considers a rich set of school administrative data, which allow…

In spring 2020, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the shift to hybrid and remote learning for most schools turned what was once a "homework gap" into a "learning opportunity gap" as devices and internet access became necessary in order to keep students connected and learning. The purpose of this brief is to…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submits this report to the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions pursuant to section 649(l)(3) of the Head Start Act (the Act). This report contains findings based on data collected on the U.S. Department of…