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How Many Children and Youth Experience Homelessness?

How is Homelessness Defined?

Why Are Children and Youth Homeless?

How Does Homelessness Affect Children and Youth's Education?

What Educational Rights Do Homeless Children and Youth Have?

What Can I Do to Help?

How Many Children and Youth Experience Homelessness?

Final national numbers for the 2008-2009 school year have not yet been compiled by the U.S. Department of Education. According to the most recent federal data, in the 2008-2009 school year, 954,914 homeless children and youth were enrolled in public schools. This is a 20 percent increase from the 2007-2008 school year, and a 41% increase from the 2006-2007 school year. It is important to note that this number is not an estimate of the prevalence of child and youth homelessness; in fact, it is an underestimate, because not all school districts reported data to the U.S. Department of Education, and because the data collected represents only those children identified and enrolled in school. Finally, the number does not include all preschool-age children, or any infants and toddlers. 

The economic downturn and foreclosure crisis have had a significant impact on homelessness: according to a national survey, one in five responding school districts reported having more homeless children in the Fall of 2008 than over the course of the entire 2007-2008 school year.

Recent research indicates that child homelessness may be more widespread than school data suggest. A study published in the August 2009 edition of the American Journal of Public Health found that 7 percent of fifth-graders and their families have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, and that the occurrence is even higher - 11 percent - for African-American children and those from the poorest households. The study used a very narrow definition of homelessness, only including families living in shelters or on the streets. Yet even with this narrow definition, the study suggests that in a classroom of 28 fifth-graders, two students would have been homeless at some point in their lives. 

How is Homelessness Defined?

The federal definition of homelessness used by all public schools in the United States includes children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This definition specifically includes children and youth living in shelters, transitional housing, cars, campgrounds, motels, and sharing the housing of others temporarily due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reasons. This is the same definition of homelessness used by Head Start, special education, child nutrition, and other federal family and youth programs. 

The education definition of homelessness reflects the reality of family and youth homelessness. Emergency shelters in urban and suburban areas cannot meet demand, turning away requests for shelter. Many shelters place eligibility restrictions on families and youth; for example, many shelters do not admit families with adolescent boys, or do not allow unaccompanied minors. Rural and suburban areas may not have shelters at all. Families and youth may not have enough money to stay at a motel, or they may leave their homes in crisis, fleeing to the first available location. Youth who are homeless without an adult may be afraid to enter an adult shelter.

As a result of the lack of shelter, most students in homeless situations share housing with others temporarily, or stay in motels or other short-term facilities. These situations are precarious, damaging, crowded, unstable, and often unsafe, leading to extraordinary rates of mobility. According to the most recent federal data, of the children and youth identified as homeless and enrolled in public schools in the 2007-2008 school year, only 22 percent lived in shelters. Sixty-five percent lived doubled-up with other family members or friends, 7 percent lived in motels, and the remainder lived in unsheltered locations. 

Why Are Children and Youth Homeless?

Homelessness is a lack of permanent housing resulting from extreme poverty and/or unsafe or unstable living environments (e.g., conditions of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, or natural or other disasters). 

Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in family homelessness over the past several decades: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in severe poverty. The mean income of families experiencing homelessness is less than half the poverty line. There is a rising gap between income and housing costs for low-income individuals. For example, a full-time minimum wage worker cannot afford the fair market rent for housing in every county and state within the United States (see Out of Reach, by the National Low Income Housing Coalition). 

Unaccompanied homeless youth include young people who have run away from or been thrown out of their home or been abandoned by their parents. The primary causes of homelessness among unaccompanied youth are physical and sexual abuse by a parent or guardian, neglect, parental substance abuse, and extreme family conflict. It is estimated that between 1.6 and 1.7 million youth run away or are forced to leave home each year. 

How Does Homelessness Affect Children and Youth's Education?

In a life filled with uncertainty, loss, and deprivation, school is a place of safety, structure, and opportunity. Yet homeless children and youth face unique barriers to education. These barriers include being unable to meet enrollment requirements (including requirements to provide proof of residency and legal guardianship, and school and health records); high mobility resulting in lack of school stability and educational continuity; lack of transportation; lack of school supplies and clothing; and poor health, fatigue, and hunger. When these barriers are not addressed, homeless children and youth often are unable to attend, or even enroll in, school, which prevents them from obtaining the education that is both their legal right and their best hope of escaping poverty as adults. 

What Educational Rights Do Homeless Children and Youth Have?

Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (referred to as the McKinney-Vento Act) is a federal law designed to remove barriers to education created by homelessness, and thereby increase the enrollment, attendance, and success of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Act was passed in 1987 and reauthorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The McKinney-Vento Act requires that state and local educational agencies provide students experiencing homelessness with access to school and support for their attendance and success. Key provisions of the Act include:

Students who are homeless can remain in one school, even if their temporary living situation is located in another school district or attendance area, if that is in their best interest. Schools must provide transportation.

Children and youth who are homeless can enroll in school and begin attending immediately, even if they cannot produce normally required documents, such as birth certificates, proof of guardianship, immunization records, or proof of residency.

Every school district must designate a homeless liaison to ensure the McKinney-Vento Act is implemented in the district. Homeless liaisons have many critical responsibilities, including identification, enrollment, and collaboration with community agencies.

Every state must designate a state coordinator to ensure the McKinney-Vento Act is implemented in the state.

Both state coordinators and homeless liaisons must collaborate with other agencies serving homeless children, youth, and families to enhance educational attendance and success.

State departments of education and school districts must review and revise their policies and practices to eliminate barriers to the enrollment and retention in school of homeless children and youth.

The McKinney-Vento Act contains many other provisions designed to support the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. It is a critical tool in any effort to help these students meet their educational goals. For a list of most frequently asked questions, please see our publications page. For additional awareness and training materials, including posters, please visit the National Center for Homeless Education.

What Can I Do to Help?

There are many ways to help children and youth experiencing homelessness: 

Volunteer or donate locally. Every community is unique, so it is important to learn the needs that have been identified by your local school district and by community service providers. Every school district is required to designate homeless liaison who is responsible for coordinating services. You can contact your school district liaison by calling your school district, or you may contact your State Coordinator for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (directory compiled by the National Center for Homeless Education). To find local homeless service providers in your community, please visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care page or the National Coalition for the Homeless' directories. 

Advocate. Policy makers at the local, state, and national level need to know that their constituents care about homeless children and youth. Please consider engaging your policymakers in conversations about child and youth homelessness, and urging them to be part of solutions. For an update of federal policy issues related to the education of homeless children and youth, please see our legislative updates.

Join NAEHCY. Help NAEHCY to ensure that ALL children receive the best opportunities! Membership in the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) is open to everyone with an interest in homeless education. Annual dues are $40.00, which includes regular communications and updates from NAEHCY professional staff. Dues help support our policy, advocacy, and outreach staff and projects. Members and their programs are highlighted in the BEAM, the association's newsletter, and on the website. Other initiatives are being developed that include access to subscriptions and discounts with partner agencies. Membership is good for one full year from the date payment is received.

Join NAEHCY

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 Join NAEHCY online. 

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Educating Homeless Children

State homeless education coordinators work with EDC to translate federal law into effective practices

“Any time you think you’ve got a rule, forget about it,” says Paul Cirioni, coordinator of homeless education for the state of Massachusetts. “It’s always a case-by-case situation.” These are the watchwords for homeless education coordinators around the United States, who work to ensure adequate schooling for the country’s more than one million homeless children. Federal law guarantees these children a place in school, but ensuring that each student gains access to all of a school’s resources and services is a daunting challenge for states, school districts, and families. Implementing the law requires education administrators at both the state and district levels to fine-tune their policies on everything from enrollment to transportation to immunizations and student nutrition.

“Every case is unique,” explains Shelly Reed, coordinator of homeless education for the state of Maine. “I have to do considerable research to understand the particular circumstances of each homeless child. ”

Reed, Cirioni, and the homeless coordinators from Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are helping one another develop state strategies to implement the Federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which was reauthorized in January 2002. The New England Comprehensive Assistance Center (NECAC), based at EDC, is facilitating the collaboration and providing resources and training on homeless education.

“We all face similar challenges as small states—including minimal funding,” says Lynda Thistle-Elliott, the New Hampshire homeless education coordinator. “We need to know about all the potential resources and strategies. EDC brings a lot of expertise on both education and homelessness and helps us coordinate our efforts. ”

NECAC has set up a discussion list for the state coordinators, facilitated a series of regional meetings, and worked with the group to create a training for state- and local-level education administrators—including the new local liaisons required under the reauthorized federal regulations. To develop the trainings, NECAC staff turned to their EDC colleague Dr. John Wong, who has worked with shelters around the country for many years and is currently working on a lifeskills/career development curriculum and a whole health care program for homeless adults. “I’ve worked primarily with adults over the years, and I’d been lamenting the fact that I hadn’t had the chance to help homeless kids,” comments Wong. “This work with NECAC and the state coordinators is a great opportunity to improve education for homeless students across an entire region.”

Wong worked with the six state coordinators to share and build on existing materials on homeless education. “I wanted to add two critical pieces to existing training materials used in other parts of the country,” says Wong. “First, a framework for understanding homelessness, and second, strategies for helping liaisons turn the law into effective education.” For Wong, these two points are inextricably bound: In order to understand and implement the letter and spirit of the law, the local liaisons need to understand a great deal about the causes and effects of homelessness. In the NECAC trainings, Wong provides an overview and examples of key issues facing homeless education coordinators, including the following:

An expanded definition of homelessness

The McKinney-Vento Act has broadened the definition of homelessness to include children who are doubling up at relatives’ homes, or living at campgrounds or in substandard housing. “We take the number of kids HUD counts in shelters and multiply it by three,” explains Wendy Ross, Vermont State Coordinator for Education of Homeless Children and Youth. In Vermont, Ross estimates that there are 2,600 children experiencing homelessness on any given night. In New Hampshire, Thistle-Elliott’s recent “one-day count” yielded 773 children, up almost 34 percent from last year’s count of 578. The NECAC trainings help liaisons and coordinators identify, track, and reach out to the families and children eligible for services under McKinney-Vento.

Community outreach

While federal law guarantees the education of homeless children, homeless parents may believe that their children are ineligible to enroll in school because they lack a permanent address. Homeless youth may also feel embarrassed to attend school because they lack clean clothes or school supplies, while others living in domestic violence shelters may feel unsafe attending classes. The trainings provide suggestions for building a formal referral network, including community agencies, shelter providers, case managers, and various school services, that will reach out to the homeless population and inform them of their rights.

Flexible enrollment policies

Some well-intentioned enrollment policies can present obstacles for homeless families who are trying to place their children in schools. The McKinney-Vento law requires that states provide flexibility around such issues as residency requirements and permanent addresses to accommodate students from homeless families. In addition, most states require that students be immunized before enrolling in school. The McKinney-Vento law states explicitly that these children can enroll in school while their immunization records are being acquired and transferred.

Avoidance of stigmatization and isolation

Some schools develop special packets of resources or meal tickets designed to help students in homeless situations, unwittingly embarrassing these students in front of their classmates. Wong urges schools to provide these extra services as discreetly as possible to avoid adding to these students’ feelings of separateness and isolation.

Efforts to meet the needs of the whole child

Students from homeless situations may arrive at school with a host of special needs and problems. The NECAC trainings provide recommendations on mobilizing school and community resources to remedy developmental delays, learning disabilities, health issues, and emotional and academic problems.

With the trainings for the local liaisons developed, the group of state coordinators is moving on to tackle other challenges of the McKinney-Vento implementation. Connecticut’s Louis Tallarita has brought Wong into his state to design an evaluation of the 14 grants his office distributes with McKinney-Vento funds. “We’re hoping to develop a framework for evaluation for all the grantees and to highlight promising practices,” Tallarita explains. The other coordinators believe that the framework will be valuable in their states as well.

Another new initiative reported at a recent meeting includes a specialized training Thistle-Elliott and Wong are creating for New Hampshire’s superintendents, and a statewide training Vermont’s Wendy Ross and Wong plan to create for local education administrators, using Vermont Interactive Television.

Regional collaboration is clearly paying off for each of the coordinators. Understandably overwhelmed at the challenges posed by the federal law, they are also confident that their joint planning and shared resources are allowing them to translate policy into practices that are helping the neediest populations in their states. “These meetings have been extremely useful,” comments Thistle-Elliott. “We’re all the lone soldiers in our state; working through these issues as a group makes a tremendous difference. ”

Five Principles for Educators (from the NECAC Trainings)

Do not stigmatize children in homeless situations. Do not think of them as homeless children, but rather as children temporarily without a home due to a complex set of circumstances beyond their control—and often, their understanding. They need sensitivity, understanding, and recognition of their individual strengths as well as needs. Have high expectations for their success.

Make schools safe havens. The family and community life of these children can be so unstable that schools must provide a sense of belonging and security. In the midst of chaos, a teacher and a school can be a source of hope, encouragement, and positive support.

Think of the needs of the whole child. Work with school and community resources to improve children’s physical health, mental health, and food and nutritional needs. Help meet their basic needs so that they are in a position to learn and achieve.

Work with parents or guardians to develop concrete goals and programs. Parents who are homeless have the same goals other parents have for their children. Understand that adults in families that are homeless may be stretched thin, balancing many requirements. Many homeless people have jobs. Their time may be as limited as other families.

Reach out to the community. Building a collaborative school and community network is critical to mounting a comprehensive effort to helping children who are homeless.

homeless children in India

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THE PROBLEMS OF STREET CHILDREN

• Abuse
• Child Labour
• Gender Discrimination
• Health
• Homelessness
• Poverty

Abuse:

Many of the street children who have run away from home have done so because they were beaten or sexually abused. Tragically, their homelessness can lead to further abuse through exploitative child labour and prostitution.

Not only does abuse rob runaway children of their material security, but it also leaves them emotionally scarred. Many of the abused children I-India encounters are traumatised and some refuse to speak for months. To aggravate matters, children often feel guilty and blame themselves for their mistreatment. Such damage can take years to recover from in even the most loving of environments; on the streets it may never heal.

A large proportion of the boys and girls in I-India’s homes have suffered abuse. In addition to fulfilling their material needs, we seek to provide a warm and caring atmosphere. Our vocational centres, too, are safe, fun places where children gain confidence and self-esteem. We run a help line for children in need, and, unusual amongst Indian NGOs, we employ male and female full-time counsellors to support our children’s emotional development.

Child Labour:

Most Indian street children work. In Jaipur, a common job is rag-picking, in which boys and girls as young as 6 years old sift through garbage in order to collect recyclable material. The children usually rise before dawn and carry their heavy load in a large bag over their shoulder. Rag-pickers can be seen alongside pigs and dogs searching through trash heaps on their hands and knees.

Other common jobs are the collecting of firewood, tending to animals, street vending, dyeing, begging, prostitution and domestic labour.

Children that work are not only subject to the strains and hazards of their labour, but are also denied the education or training that could enable them to escape the poverty trap.

I-India provides non-formal street schools to ensure that working children get at least a basic education. We nurture community support for our schools and seek to mainstream suitable children into the government education system. We also provide popular and practical vocational training where older children can learn skills while also earning some money.

Gender Discrimination:

In Indian Society females are often discriminated against. Their health, education, prosperity and freedom are all impacted. The problem is worse in conservative Rajasthan than almost anywhere else in India.

For example, because girls carry the liability of dowry and leave the family home after marriage, parents may prefer to have male offspring. Many babies are aborted, abandoned or deliberately neglected and underfed simply because they are girls. This can be seen in the fact that female mortality rates amongst 0-4 year olds in India are 107% of male mortality rates, whereas the comparable number in Western Europe is 74%. The rate is 119% in Rajasthan. Further evidence of the imbalance is that the female/male ratio within the general population of India is unnaturally low at 927/1000, and even lower in Rajasthan at 909/1000.

Gender discrimination is particularly evident in education where boys are more likely to attend school and to do so for more years. The traditional place of the woman is in the home and so many parents and children consider education for girls to be a waste of time, especially when the child can instead be working or performing domestic chores. Only 38% of Indian women are literate and, at 64%, the gender parity between literacy rates amongst Indian women and men is one of the most unequal in the world.

Child Marriage is another way in which girls are disadvantaged. In addition to limiting educational possibilities and stunting personal development, early marriage carries health risks. A girl under 15 is five times more likely to die during pregnancy than a women in her twenties; her child is also more likely to die.

I-India emphasizes care and opportunity for girls. There are more girls than boys in our street schools, vocational centres and homes. We also employ many women and do so at all levels up to the founder, Abha Goswami, herself.

Health:

Poor health is a chronic problem for street children. Half of all children in India are malnourished, but for street children the proportion is much higher. These children are not only underweight, but their growth has often been stunted; for example, it is very common to mistake a 12 year old for an 8 year old.

Street children live and work amidst trash, animals and open sewers. Not only are they exposed and susceptible to disease, they are also unlikely to be vaccinated or receive medical treatment. Only two in three Indian children have been vaccinated against TB, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio and Measles; only one in ten against Hepatitis B. Most street children have not been vaccinated at all. They usually can not afford, and do not trust, doctors or medicines. If they receive any treatment at all it will often be harmful, as with kids whose parents place scalding metal on their bellies as a remedy for persistent stomach pain.

Child labourers suffer from exhaustion, injury, exposure to dangerous chemicals, plus muscle and bone afflictions.

There is much ignorance about reproductive health and many girls suffer needlessly. A girl made infertile by an easily-preventable condition may become unmarryable and so doomed to a life of even greater insecurity and material hardship.

The HIV/AIDS rate amongst Indian adults is 0.7% and so has not yet reached the epidemic rates experienced in Southern Africa. However, this still represents 5 million people, or about 1 in 7 in of those in the world who have the disease. The rate amongst children is lower, but because street children are far more sexually active than their Indian peers and because many are even prostitutes they are thus hugely at risk of contracting the disease. AIDS awareness, testing and treatment exist, but less so for street children than other demographic groups.

I-India provides nutrition, medical treatment, plus hygiene and reproductive health education to 1250 children in our street schools and homes. We run an AIDS awareness program targeting an additional 500 at-risk children. We also operate a Shower Bus that regularly visits street points and offers on-the-spot showers and cleansing products. We employ several full-time nurses and have relationships with hospitals that are willing to treat our children for free. I-India also provides education on tracking malnutrition to local staff in 233 village health centres, benefiting 33,000 rural children.

Homelessness:

Street children in India may be homeless because their family is homeless through poverty or migration, or because they have been abandoned, orphaned or have run away. It is not unusual to see whole families living on the sidewalks of Jaipur, or rows of individual children sleeping around the railway station.

Homeless children have the odds stacked against them. They are exposed to the elements, have an uncertain supply of food, are likely miss out on education and medical treatment, and are at high risk of suffering addiction, abuse and illness. A single child alone on the streets is especially vulnerable. 

I-India prioritizes homeless street children. For them we provide: repatriation to their families, temporary and permanent shelter, street schools, vocational training, nutrition, medical treatment, shower facilities, AIDS awareness and a help line.

Poverty:

Poverty is the prime cause of the street children crisis. Children from well-off families do not need to work, or beg. They live in houses, eat well, go to school, and are likely to be healthy and emotionally secure.

Poverty dumps a crowd of problems onto a child. Not only do these problems cause suffering, but they also conspire to keep the child poor throughout his/her life. In order to survive, a poor child in India will probably be forced to sacrifice education and training; without skills the child will, as an adult, remain at the bottom of the economic heap.

The root causes of poverty are beyond a single NGO’s power to change, but I-India believes in helping where it can. Street schools provide some education, as does mainstreaming of children into government schools and offering scholarships to private schools. Vocational training centres are a pragmatic, but powerful, tool to assist children in escaping the poverty trap. Children at these centres learn skills such as jewellery-making and tailoring which can prove more valuable to them than additional formal schooling. The money children earn at the centres alleviates some of their poverty, and encourages the child and his/her parents to choose vocational training over child labour. I-India has also been active in promoting Child Rights.