Homeless Students Research Articles

The Achieving Success Everyday Group Counseling Model: Providing Social Support for Homeless Students* in School Settings

ABSTRACT The Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) group counseling model is discussed to support homeless students’ unique and complex needs. The phenomenology of student homelessness is reviewed, as well as how residential and environmental instability negatively impacts students’ academic and psychosocial functioning. Social support for homeless students is also discussed. Next, the ASE group model is described in detail and existing research on its application in school settings is reviewed. Implications for research and practice are provided as they may influence future efforts to support homeless students. Session examples are used to help school personnel apply the ASE model in their respective schools and communities.

Student Homelessness in High School: Prevalence, Individual Characteristics, and Profiles of Risk and Multidomain Functioning

We estimated the prevalence of high school homelessness and examined associations among homelessness, demographic factors, victimization experiences, and poor functioning using variable- and person-centered approaches. Anonymous self-report survey data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System represented approximately 6.5 million high school students in 29 regions of the United States. An estimated 9.32% of students experienced homelessness. Path analysis found homelessness was related to poor functioning, accounting for victimization and demographic factors. Latent class analysis found the highest risk profiles had high levels of homelessness, victimization, and poor functioning and an overrepresentation of multiracial, Native, and Hispanic/Latino students, and students with LGBT identities. Interventions to prevent, identify, and respond to youth homelessness should address sources of marginalization and adversity.

Strategies to Better Identify Student Homelessness Using Data in an Urban School District

We tested 10 data-based strategies to better identify student homelessness in Camden City School District, which has a student body from minoritized backgrounds. We operationalized strategies through a research-practice partnership, following the federal homelessness definition. Data span 5 years (2014–15 through 2018–19), including integrated education, municipal, and health records. Nine strategies indicated significant unidentified student homelessness (min: 15; max: 5,008; p-values < .001). Consistent with homelessness, six strategies produced groups with lower attendance ( p-values < .01) and seven with increased school mobility ( p-values < .05). Homelessness was 34% greater in the most conservative interpretation, though counts could be as much as 454% greater. Student homelessness is more prevalent than recognized, data-based strategies can guide proactive outreach, and cross-system partnerships are warranted.

ADVANCING EDUCATION AND POLICY: IMPLEMENTING MCKINNEY-VENTO FOR HOMELESS RIGHTS AWARENESS

This research will evaluate the McKinney-Vento Act to deepen understanding and improve policy and practice concerning homeless students' rights and educational success. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the potential impact of educational initiatives in increasing public awareness of the rights of homeless individuals, fostering empathy, and promoting social inclusion. Grounded in the social justice theoretical framework, this research critically addresses societal disparities in power, wealth, and privilege, advocating for respect, dignity, and equal opportunities for all, particularly marginalized populations. Through this examination, the research aims to contribute to developing effective policies and practices for providing adequate support and reducing the stigmatization associated with homelessness.

Student Homelessness, COVID-19, and Social-Emotional Strengths and Needs: A Case Study

Research indicates that student high mobility can create stress and trauma, disrupting learning and dismantling relationships with peers, and teachers. Students who experience homelessness and high mobility (HHM) are faced with traumatic events that negatively impact their mental well-being and their academic performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, experts predicted that students would be returning to school having experienced great losses, deaths in their families, broken connections with peers and adults, and other adverse experiences. This qualitative case study bounded by a collection of districts including a large southwestern city, found that schools were unprepared for the switch to distance learning and that teachers lacked the training to deal with the social and emotional needs of children. I observed these districts through three phases of COVID-19 and assessed how Social and Emotional Learning practices were being delivered during the pandemic.

Resource Hopping: Examining the Policy Barriers Faced and Strategies Used to Establish Partnerships for Students Experiencing Homelessness

Effective support for students experiencing homelessness requires collaboration and coordination within and between agencies. However, this can be difficult for communities with limited resources and majority Black and Latino populations. This article explores the challenges faced by a divested urban school district in establishing meaningful community partnerships for supporting homeless students. Using an anti-deficit achievement framework and structural racism lens, interviews with district personnel, city and county government, and community-based organizations illustrate how homeless liaisons overcame structural and political barriers by seeking informal support networks outside their city and partnering with organizations beyond their immediate jurisdiction to better serve students experiencing homelessness. Building upon recent discourse on how to best support students experiencing homelessness, this article offers a much needed examination of the role of homeless liaisons in implementing MVA.

Hawai’i

Budgeting on a biennium basis, Hawai’i has two education budgets with appropriations of more than $2 billion for 2022–2023. A strong budget flush with COVID-19 relief funds and higher-than-expected tax revenues are funding priorities that include recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting pre-pandemic shortfalls, and new advancing education initiatives. Hawai’i uses a weighted student formula with adjustments made at the beginning of each biennium. Weight increases for English learners and homeless students are recent changes to the funding formula. Charter schools serve as one alternative to traditional public schools and students in charter schools receive equalized student funding. Hawai’i is unique among the states because it has a single school system for the entire state and a single university system. The University of Hawai’i system budget is about 6% of the state education budget and P-12 schools, including libraries and charter schools, are about 21% of the state’s budget. One of the most challenging school finance issues facing Hawai’i’s leaders is how to use the excess funds in the current budget to have the maximum impact on schools in a manner that is sustainable in the future.

Exploring Homelessness Among Students in Merced County, CA

This comprehensive review paper aims to explore the effects homelessness has on students’ mental health and access to resources in Merced County, CA. By conducting interviews and meticulously analyzing multiple articles, this study investigates the impact of community mapping, support groups, and their connections with community-based research. The findings reveal a myriad of distinct factors that may lead to the plight of homelessness, while simultaneously illuminating potential avenues for assisting homeless individuals. Furthermore, this review paper delves into the impact of homelessness on mental health and education, highlighting the complex issue of student homelessness and the significance of promoting social mobility within the community.

Estimating long-term K-12 student homelessness after a catastrophic flood disaster

Despite efforts to end homelessness in the United States, student homelessness is gradually growing over the past decade. Homelessness creates physical and psychological disadvantages for students and often disrupts school access. Research suggests that students who experience prolonged dislocation and school disruption after a disaster are primarily from low-income households and under-resourced areas. This study develops a framework to predict post-disaster trajectories for kindergarten through high school (K-12) students faced with a major disaster; the framework includes an estimation on the households with children who recover and those who experience long-term homelessness. Using the National Center for Education Statistics school attendance boundaries, residential housing inventory, and U.S. Census data, the framework first identifies students within school boundaries and links schools to students to housing. The framework then estimates dislocation induced by the disaster scenario and tracks the stage of post-disaster housing for each dislocated student. The recovery of dislocated students is predicted using a multi-state Markov chain model, which captures the sequences that households transition through the four stages of post-disaster housing (i.e., emergency shelter, temporary shelter, temporary housing, and permanent housing) based on the social vulnerability of the household. Finally, the framework predicts the number of students experiencing long-term homelessness and maps the students back to their pre-disaster school. The proposed framework is exemplified for the case of Hurricane Matthew-induced flooding in Lumberton, North Carolina. Findings highlight the disparate outcomes households with children face after major disasters and can be used to aid decision-making to reduce future disaster impacts on students.

Improving school attendance among homeless children: Evaluating the attendance matters program

Absenteeism is a prevailing concern in American education, and students experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to high rates of school absenteeism. Despite this increased risk, we find no research in which the primary focus is assessing the efficacy of shelter-based programs that seek to reduce absenteeism among homeless children. Thus, we evaluate the Attendance Matters program, which sought to improve school attendance among homeless students in New York City shelters through interagency coordination, leveraging data to target scarce program resources, and employing evidence-based social work practices. We use administrative data in a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the program’s effects on school attendance and, secondarily, on outcomes of proficiency and stability. Findings suggest that the program resulted in reductions in days absent and the absence rate among K-8 students, though findings for secondary outcomes and attendance outcomes for high school students were inconsistent across model specifications. Results, which likely understate actual program effects, have implications beyond this setting, as they suggest that a low-budget program leveraging evidence-based practices and existing resources can impact this seemingly intractable problem. Education and homelessness policymakers should seek opportunities to test replication in additional settings.

Information Behaviors of Homeless Education Experts for Supporting College-Bound Students

The transition from high school to higher education can be difficult for any student. For the 100,000 high school seniors each year who experience homelessness, the challenges around transitioning to higher education are magnified, causing many to forego college all together. This emerging research study seeks to understand how McKinney-Vento homeless liaisons at the state, region, and school district level find and use information to support homeless students’ transition to higher education. Findings suggest the need for single points of contact on college campuses, uniformity of supports and information available to liaisons, students, and families.

Linking homelessness in secondary school to postsecondary and early labor market outcomes in Maryland using a continuum of risk framework

Homeless and low-income students share multiple overlapping risk experiences; however, some studies report little to no observed differences in outcomes between these students. From the cumulative risk perspective, homelessness is perched at the extreme edge of economic insecurity, suggesting that homeless students encounter additional hardships beyond poverty experiences alone. Using a continuum of risk framework, this study leveraged statewide administrative data from a 6th grade cohort of Maryland public school students (N = 52,610) to investigate the association between homelessness and educational and early labor market outcomes, above and beyond the associations linked to poverty. Findings provide support for the continuum of risk in relation to educational outcomes; however, no significant differences were observed in early labor market outcomes, although racial differences were detected. This study underscores the importance of targeted interventions in promoting positive, long-term outcomes, particularly for students who were homeless in adolescence.

Districts' and schools' role in identifying and providing services for homeless students: Nested ecological case studies in school districts with high- and low-socioeconomic status.

Even though homeless students are nested in schools and districts with different socioeconomic status (SES) contexts, little is known about the role of schools and districts for homeless students in these differing contexts. This comparative case study explored the identification, service provision, and school experience of homeless students in high- and low-SES districts. Mixed-methods case study methodology was used to compare two school districts and their four elementary and middle schools in California. The districts differed based on their SES: low to medium versus high. Findings show that despite differences in theSES context, both districts were underidentifying homeless students. Hence, both districts were underserving and lacking awareness of homeless students thatwere not identified. However, the low-SES district had far greater poverty awareness and, subsequently, an existing organizational structure than the high-SES district to support identified homeless students. Poverty awareness and districts' organizational structure are important contextual factors to consider in designing local and tailored interventions and services for homeless students.

Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students Experiencing Homelessness and Substance Use in the School Context: A Statewide Study.

This study explored differences between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB)-housed and homeless students regarding substance use patterns on and off school grounds and the unique contribution of homelessness to substance use in school. Data were from the 2013-2015 California Healthy Kids Survey, a statewide survey of school protective factors and risk behaviors. A representative sample of 9th- and 11th-grade students (N=20,337) was used. Comparisons between housed (n=19,456) and homeless (doubled up: n=715; acute homeless: n=166) LGB students were conducted. We used chi-square tests to compare rates of lifetime, past-30-day, and in-school substance use and conducted multivariate logistic regression models for each substance use variables. Chi-square test results indicated significant differences in rates of substance use among students experiencing homelessness (both categories) and housed LGB students. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual students experiencing homelessness were more likely to report substance use off and on school grounds. Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that LGB students who experience homelessness were significantly more likely to report recent and in-school substance use. For example, students experiencing acute homelessness were about 3 times as likely to report heavy episodic drinking (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=3.13; 95% confidence interval [CI]=2.13, 4.26) and more than 5 times as likely to smoke marijuana in school (AOR=5.38; 95% CI=3.46, 8.36), compared to housed LGB students. LGB students who experience homelessness are at higher risk than housed LGB students of substance use on and off school grounds. Findings highlight the need to provide support in the school context for this subpopulation.

The homeless student – and recovering a sense of belonging

There is much empirical evidence to suggest that many students today feel alone and experience anxiety. These phenomena – loneliness and anxiety - have long existed but there is reason to believe that they are heightened in the twenty-first century; and universities are putting in effort to alleviate levels of student stress. However, largely missing is a sense that a degree of destabilization is necessary for an educational process to be worthy of the name of ‘higher education’. It is part of higher education that a student should be, to some extent, epistemologically unsettled. And that unsettlement has to include students becoming reflective of their taken-for-granted frameworks and recognizing the contingency of those frameworks. The student comes ultimately and continually to unsettle her/himself. Higher education, accordingly, is a site of homelessness, in which students embark on a process of permanent – that is, lifelong – self-unsettlement. Fundamentally, therefore, a genuine higher education is not so much a matter of acquiring knowledge (an epistemological process) or skills (a practical process) but about taking on a nomadic form of being (an ontological process); a being always on the move. The student develops a will to unlearn and comes even to revel in it. It is a responsibility of the university to provide the institutional and the pedagogical wherewithal to elicit this kind of student homefulness even alongside a continuing homelessness.

Risky sexual behavior and STI testing among teens experiencing homelessness

Teens who experience homelessness are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, though less is reliably known about sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing rates in this group. We tested for differences in sexual behaviors and STI/HIV testing based on student homelessness and intersecting factors using data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey administered in 7 states and 3 school districts. Students who experienced homelessness were more likely to report risky sexual behavior. Race moderated this link, suggesting that Asian students who experienced homelessness were at greater risk. Homelessness was linked to a greater likelihood of having been tested for STIs/HIV among those who seemed to be in groups recommended for testing. Student sex and lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity did not moderate associations between homelessness and risky sexual behavior or STI/HIV testing. The overall sample demonstrated low STI testing rates, indicating a continued need to improve testing rates for all youth at risk for STIs/HIV.

Timing and Duration of Student Homelessness and Educational Outcomes in Los Angeles

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 scored lower on math tests and missed more school days than students who were never homeless. These associations are largest when students experience homelessness in the year the outcomes are measured. Experiencing homelessness in only 1 year and in 2 or more years both negatively predict outcomes, but associations are larger for students experiencing homelessness in only 1 year.

Foregrounding the “Home” in Student Homelessness: Residential Context and Educational Outcomes in an Urban District

Students experiencing homelessness spend their nights in various settings, including shelters, with friends/families (doubled-up), motels/hotels, and unsheltered contexts. Yet there is limited quantitative research on how educational outcomes vary by residential context. We analyze data from over 400,000 students in Houston Independent School District from 2012–2013 to 2016–2017 via fixed-effects models and coarsened exact matching techniques. We find that students who became homeless attended less school and were more likely to drop out than nonhomeless students but had comparable achievement growth and disciplinary infractions. However, outcomes varied significantly by residential context: Doubled-up students fared relatively well on most outcomes, whereas students in shelter had particularly poor attainment. Results highlight the importance of research and practice that attends to differences by residential context.

Higher Education Liaisons for Students Experiencing Homelessness: Role Preparation and Professional Development Needs

Homelessness among college students is an increasing concern on campuses across the U.S. Homelessness during college is associated with food insecurity, mental health concerns, and academic challenges including dropped classes, low GRE, and delayed degree completion. Homeless education liaisons—a role often filled by financial aid officers—are tasked with assisting students experiencing homelessness as the students navigate systems of support for basic needs while pursuing their degrees. Little is known about the perspectives or experiences of these professionals in terms of their role as a liaison. Our aim was to inform efforts to support these professionals by gaining an understanding of the knowledge and experiences of liaisons and their professional development preferences and needs. Based on survey data collected from 49 liaisons in four states, we identified gaps in understanding of college student homelessness, such as underestimates of the rate of student homelessness. We pinpointed areas of potential professional development including methods to identify and reach all students at risk for or experiencing homelessness and approaches for collaboration with community partners. We found that liaisons welcomed professional development and preferred online training and peer support as approaches to gain knowledge and skills to fulfill their critical roles.

Responding Well to Student Homelessness

Though the number of American students who are homeless has surged, identifying them and providing the assistance they need is difficult. The author explores the problem and offers strategies and resources for educators.