What is student houselessness?

Children and youth experiencing houselessness have the right to equal access to the same free, appropriate public education as other children and youth. The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento Act) ensures this right for ‘homeless children and youth,’ identified as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This definition includes: sharing the housing of other people (“doubling-up”); living in emergency or transitional shelters; living in motels, hotels or camp grounds; and living in vehicles, public spaces, abandoned buildings, or substandard housing. Houseless ‘unaccompanied minors,’ or youth who have been abandoned or who have run away from home, are also eligible for the rights and services provided under the McKinney-Vento Act.

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, states must work to identify and mitigate any barriers to the identification, enrollment, attendance, and school success of students experiencing houselessness. Rights include immediate school enrollment even when records are not available, maintaining stable school placement (determined by a student’s best interest) even if outside typical transportation boundaries, and receiving support for academic success. Services vary by district and may include school transportation, tutoring, counseling, extracurricular programs, clothing, fees for educational materials, extracurricular activities or testing, and referral to health services.

Why is student houselessness important?

In the 2017-18 school year, data collected for McKinney-Vento reported there were 21,756 K-12 students experiencing houselessness in Oregon, which represents 3.75% of the total enrollment. Based on McKinney-Vento reporting, the percentage of K-12 students experiencing houselessness has been greater than 3% of total enrollment since the 2008-2009 school year.

School stability is an important factor in a student’s academic and social growth. Students experiencing houselessness lacking a stable, fixed living arrangement, can be particularly vulnerable to changing schools. Research has shown that students can lose academic progress with each school change.

Additionally, highly mobile students have been found to have lower test scores and worse academic performance than their peers. In 2017-18, across all grades in Oregon K-12 schools, students experiencing houselessness were significantly behind all students in meeting or exceeding standards in English Language Arts (31.6% vs. 54.9%), Math (17.7% vs 40.5%), and Science (39.6% vs. 60.2%). Students who were houseless were also less likely to be on track to graduate in 9th grade, at 60.2%, compared to 84.5% among all 9th graders.