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…

Social workers are charged to work with vulnerable populations and often encounter those experiencing homelessness. Despite this fact, social workers do not typically learn about homelessness in degree programs even though the topic aligns with the educational competencies set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. This teaching note…

Systems navigators help local educational agencies (LEAs) meet the needs of students experiencing homelessness and decrease barriers to their education by connecting them--and often their families--to resources and community organizations that can provide wraparound services. This National Center for Homeless Education brief: (1) provides…

Across the United States, state and local education agencies work to ensure equitable access to high-quality education for all students, including students who are experiencing homelessness. This barrier to academic success is, unfortunately, not unique. To equitably serve all students, states and districts must first identify students…

This article details the ways a series of architecture graduate classes partnered with a nonprofit youth sports organization and other community groups to design a shelter to accommodate those experiencing homelessness in Lubbock, Texas. The researchers use a case study approach to discuss how graduate students repeatedly engaged with the public…

This research was conducted at Sunshine in Trinidad and Tobago and highlights the voices of seventeen street children. Although they live at Sunshine many of them continue to frequent the streets. Published research indicates that there exists a paucity of information about the lives and experiences of these children. It is important that…

This paper describes a community based learning project organized to improve students' understanding of the structural components of homelessness, reduce stereotypes, and encourage students to engage in social justice activism on behalf of the homeless. This paper explains the goals of this project, student outcomes, research findings, and the…

Background: Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have high rates of homelessness. This observational study evaluates Bridges to Housing, a cross-sector intervention offering immediate access to housing and supports to this population in Toronto, Canada. Methods: Twenty-six participants, enrolled between April 2016 and…

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento Act) provides students who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence with the right to the same free, appropriate, public education that other students receive. Each year, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) collects demographic and academic data on students eligible for…

In the past ten years, chronic absenteeism has attracted increasing attention. Research correlates chronic absenteeism with lower standardized test scores and grade point averages. Chronic absenteeism also correlates with higher rates of grade retention and dropping out (UEPC, 2012). Being present in school is a necessary precondition to receiving…

This article is an ethnographic case study of the work of two activist groups in Kansas City, Missouri. It discusses how unhoused activists with the Kansas City Homeless Union, through their 13-month on-and-off occupation of city property, worked to reframe access in ways that moved toward what disability justice activists call collective access,…

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…

This literature review aims to understand who is and is not being served by Head Start among families experiencing adversity; the range of recruitment, selection, enrollment, and retention (RSER) strategies that programs use with families experiencing adversity; the factors that shape the use of RSER strategies; and the effectiveness of specific…

This brief is directed towards relief agencies. These agencies play a critical role in connecting families, children, and youth who have been displaced by disasters to needed services, including enabling children and youth to continue their education. The brief: (1) explains the importance of school attendance for children and youth who have lost…

Disasters, such as floods, fires, and storms, can devastate communities and the lives of people who live in them. After disasters, displaced families long to return to a sense of normalcy, so reconnecting children to school is especially important during this time. By providing the structure of an education setting, schools can help children and…