This study explores how two schools serve students who are in danger of or have already experienced the school-to-prison pipeline. The majority of students at these schools faced significant setbacks in traditional settings (e.g., truancy, poor grades, suspension, expulsion, incarceration). At each charter school, the free and reduced lunch…

The Cowen Institute has a deep commitment to helping students in New Orleans access financial aid for college. They have previously monitored Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rates in New Orleans and Atlanta, provided resources to help FAFSA completion, and currently convene collaboratives of college counselors and youth…

The number of students identified as homeless and enrolled in schools increased by 3.5% over a three-year span during the 2012-2013 to 2014-2015 school years (National Center for Homeless Education [NCHE], 2016). The education subtitle of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as amended in December 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act…

This Research-to-Impact brief is the first in a series by Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count on understanding and addressing youth homelessness. "Missed Opportunities: National Estimates" highlights results from a national survey on unaccompanied youth homelessness in America. The study captures youth homelessness broadly, including…

During a disaster, youth may be separated from their parents or guardians. Parents who have lost their homes may place youth temporarily with friends or relatives; or youth may be separated from their parents during an emergency evacuation. Additionally, some youth could be on their own before a disaster occurs. Unaccompanied youth who lack a…

Suspension and expulsion rates have doubled in the past four decades. As a result, more students than ever--particularly black, Latino, American Indian, and those with disabilities--are being excluded from classroom instruction. These discipline practices rarely allow students to repair the harm they've done as a result of their transgressions or…

This research examines mediational processes in digital activities at Projeto Clicar, a program designed to promote the social inclusion of children living and working on the streets of São Paulo, Brasil. It offers a cognitive ethnography of how the program's particular relational habitus, or pedagogical frame, shapes children's participatory…

Charter school Alternative Education Campuses (AECs) leverage the nimbleness of the charter school model to create unique learning opportunities nationwide for students who experience challenges that make it difficult to excel academically. Some of the challenges include homelessness, pregnancy, parenting while in school, or interaction with the…

That the arts enhance academic achievement has been a claim of educators for the past century. This experimental study examined whether and to what extent the use of creative dramatics interventions increased the vocabulary achievement of fourth grade students in a language arts classroom. The 20-day study was conducted across five weeks of…

This Research-to-Impact brief is the sixth in a series by Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count on understanding and addressing youth homelessness. This brief draws exclusively on the in-depth interview (IDI) component from Voices of Youth Count. The 215 young people that were interviewed across five diverse U.S. counties shared stories of…

Homelessness is a complex and multifaceted condition that affects 2.5 million, or one in every 30, children annually. Based on these numbers, it is likely that at least one student has experienced or is experiencing homelessness in most public school classrooms. Sixteen percent of students experiencing homelessness also received services under…

Collaborating with "Project: Humanity," an acclaimed socially engaged theatre company, we mobilized, over 16 weeks, an applied theatre methodology of drama workshops and traditional qualitative research methods to explore issues of spatialized inequality and localized poverty with a youth shelter community in Toronto, Canada.…

The U.S. education system is founded on the idea that students are in class every weekday; simply put, to benefit from school, a student must be in attendance. Nevertheless, many students miss school on a regular basis, thereby missing out on valuable instruction. Statistics on absenteeism among homeless students are particularly concerning, with…

Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 USC §§11431-11435, 2001; hereafter referred to as "The McKinney-Vento Act"), reauthorized in 2001 by Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act, guarantees a child or youth identified as homeless the right to attend either the school of origin or the local attendance…

Each year, between 1.5 and 1.6 million youth run away from home or are forced out of their homes by their parents. While many of these youth return home quickly, others remain separated from their families and live in homeless situations. Every local educational agency (LEA) has a designated homeless liaison, with the responsibility to identify…