Education Funding What the Research Says

1 in 5 Homeless Students Left School Since the Pandemic. Can Funding Help Find Them?

By Sarah D. Sparks — August 11, 2022 3 min read
Kimora Gantt, 8, right, does homework while Jason Gantt, 5, gets his head shaved by his father, Bobby Gantt. After struggling with homelessness, the family has found stability in a home they rent through the housing authority in Tacoma, Wash.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

In spite of unprecedented federal relief money to find and serve homeless students, districts are still struggling to find some 300,000 homeless children who fell off K-12 rolls during the pandemic.

As of 2020-21, the first full school year of the pandemic, the number of homeless students enrolled in public schools dropped 22 percent, to a little more than 1 million students, compared to the 1.3 million homeless students enrolled in 2018-19, according to a study by the homeless research group SchoolHouse Connection.

“No one thinks that homelessness went down [during the pandemic],” said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, “but districts are still struggling to catch up” in identifying and serving homeless students who moved, lost touch during remote learning, or otherwise became disconnected from school during the last few years.

In 2021, Congress dedicated $800 million in one-time pandemic relief money for homeless students—eight times the normal federal homeless education funding through McKinney-Vento Act grants. The pandemic aid has provided homeless education support for more than 6,300 districts that had not previously received McKinney-Vento grants, the report found, a more than six-fold increase. Identification has proven the most common use of the aid, in 27 out of the 37 states surveyed.

Homeless students who are Black and those who initially lived in shelters have seen the biggest enrollment declines, federal data show.

Districts have until January 2025 to spend the relief aid for homeless students. The report recommends districts and schools target homeless students in their larger responses to rising chronic absenteeism, learning loss, and mental health issues since the pandemic.

For example, the Cleveland public school system expanded its counseling staff to include a counselor dedicated only to serving homeless students, as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show homeless students are at significantly higher risk of suicide and other mental health problems.

These students “have the trauma of homelessness, but also if you look at the population of students experiencing homelessness, they are disproportionately students of color, LGBTQ students, pregnant students ... so right now, the school climate issues that we’re dealing with also affect them more, making layers of trauma,” Duffield said.

The Vancouver, Wash., public school system has hired specialists to coordinate with local housing and health agencies to support rising numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth. Among student groups, runaways and other unaccompanied homeless children have become particularly vulnerable, Duffield said, because in many areas they are too young to consent to medical treatment. That means unaccompanied youth have had more difficulty getting access to vaccines to protect against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and students who became sick have had difficulty getting health care.

In planning supports for homeless students, the report recommends that school and district leaders:

  • Identify which groups of homeless students, such as English-learners or students temporarily rooming with other families, have become disconnected from school. In Minneapolis, for example, schools survey homeless parents and students regularly to identify their most common challenges to getting to school.
  • Target the needs of homeless students when planning efforts to help recoup lost learning time. For example, if a school plans to offer summer or after-school programs, coordinate to make sure homeless students will have transportation and supplies to participate.
  • In districts dealing with high teacher turnover, incorporate training to identify homeless students as part of orientation for new staff members.
Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Mathematics Webinar How to Build Students’ Confidence in Math
Learn practical tips to build confident mathematicians in our webinar.
Student Achievement K-12 Essentials Forum How to Build and Scale Effective K-12 State & District Tutoring Programs
Join this free virtual summit to learn from education leaders, policymakers, and industry experts on the topic of high-impact tutoring.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding States Sue Linda McMahon Over 'Drastic and Abrupt' End to COVID Relief Aid
The sudden cancellation of extensions on spending COVID relief aid "triggered chaos," the states argue.
5 min read
Illustration on a cyan blue background showing a businessman's hand and suit arm as he controls the strings attached to each arm of a clock.
DigitalVision Vectors
Education Funding Trump Cut Teacher-Training Grants for Schools and Colleges. Now What?
Some educator-preparation programs have little hope of getting their money back, even if court cases advance.
10 min read
A man standing on the edge of a one dollar bill that is folded downward to look like a funding cliff.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding States Urge McMahon to Restore Federal Funds She Canceled Without Notice
New York's education department threatened legal action if the federal government doesn't restore pandemic relief funds.
10 min read
Person thinking to enter money maze puzzle.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding Schools Could Lose Millions in Federal Dollars After McMahon Changes Rules
The federal government has rescinded deadline extensions for a majority of states to spend remaining pandemic aid.
7 min read
Photo of calendar with pushpins on dates.
iStock