College students are unable to meet their basic needs (food, housing, utilities, etc.) at greater rates than the general adult population of the United States. When students lack enough to eat and/or are unable to secure safe, stable housing, they often face tolls to their psychological and physical health. Additionally, compared to peers who are…

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected college students' basic needs, financial security, academic success, caregiving responsibilities, mental health, and more, according to the Fall 2020 Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) conducted by Trellis Company. Researchers surveyed 37,936 students at 62 two- and four-year colleges and universities from…

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…

Education policies have too often ignored how conditions outside of school can alter life chances for young people, especially students of color, before they even reach the classroom. More recently, COVID-19 has made it impossible to overlook the needs of the whole child, both inside and outside of school. The authors assert that responding to a…

Basic needs insecurity -- including housing and food insecurity, as well as lack of access to healthcare, childcare, transportation, and other basic needs -- is a critical barrier that can undermine persistence and completion rates for postsecondary students. The gaps in covering critical costs such as housing and food are pervasive among students…

The COVID-19 pandemic and transition to online learning brings new challenges in meeting the unique social and emotional needs of young adolescents. Furthermore, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated deep inequities in our society. The crisis highlights the growing racial and economic disparities that occur when students do not have the online…

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…

In this qualitative case study, we employ 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Drawing on Small's notion of organizational embeddedness, we find that COVID-19 fundamentally altered school and…

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…

As Research for Action (RFA) found in 2018 (see ED593694), Pennsylvania schools have a history of under-identifying students experiencing homelessness, denying likely hundreds of students the educational rights afforded by federal law each year. Now the state, along with the whole nation, is facing multiple crises as a result of the COVID-19…

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 Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD)'s crisis response, which…

In early August 2020, as educators prepared for an uncertain school year, there was a worrying theme from school district homeless liaisons: numbers of identified homeless students were down--in some cases, significantly down--despite evidence of increased need. In September and October of 2020, a survey was conducted of local educational agency…

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…

As state leaders continue to help their districts and schools respond to the COVID-19 crisis, they must not forget the lessons learned during the last 18 months. The $125 billion allocated through the American Rescue Plan is an opportunity for state leaders to support districts and schools in meeting students' most immediate academic, social, and…