Increasing Identification of Homeless Students: An Experimental Evaluation of Increased Communication Incorporating Behavioral Insights

Abstract

Over 1.5 million students in the United States experience homelessness. These students are entitled to educational support through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. However, many homeless students are not identified and therefore never receive this support. Across 1,732 local education agencies in New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of increased email communication incorporating behavioral insights targeting homeless liaison staff in order to increase the identification of homeless students. The intervention had an impact on the mean number of identified homeless students among the treatment local education agencies (3.62, 90% CI [0.32, 6.92], p = .07). The impact remained when outliers with high leverage were removed (1.51 CI [0.24, 2.79], p = .05). Within this sample, our analysis indicates that more than 3,000 additional homeless students were identified with a low-cost, low-intensity, behavioral intervention during the second semester.