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Schools should do more to help ever-increasing number of homeless students, study finds

To address the steadily rising rate of homeless students in California, the state should boost funding for social services and take other steps to ensure those students stay in school and go to college, according to a report released Tuesday by the Learning Policy Institute.

The report, which included data through the 2018-19 school year, found that the number of homeless students in California has been rising annually and likely has been exacerbated by the pandemic. In 2018-19, about 270,000 K-12 students — 1 in 23 — lacked stable housing, with Black, Native American, Pacific Islander, English learners and students in special education more likely to be affected. An estimated 1 in 5 homeless students nationwide live in California.

“Students experiencing homelessness hold educational aspirations like those of their peers — to graduate from high school and go on to college,” the researchers wrote. “What separates students experiencing homelessness from their peers are the challenges of their circumstances, often due to the cumulative effects of poverty and the instability and disruption of social relationships associated with high mobility.”

The report recommends that the state and federal government increase funding for “wraparound” services available through some schools, such as health care and mental health counseling, housing vouchers, groceries and other services aimed at low-income students and their families.

The report also recommends that the state create a “children’s cabinet” to consolidate and streamline services, and add homeless students as a separate category of high-needs students in the Local Control Funding Formula, along with foster youth, English learners and students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Because homeless students are often under-counted, the report recommends that schools improve their methods of identifying students who might be living in shelters, motels, cars, doubled-up with other families or on the street. Families sometimes don’t reveal their housing status to school staff out of shame or fear of authorities taking away their children.

Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, schools are required to identify and help homeless students, who are more likely to be absent from school and less likely to graduate then their peers. The Learning Policy Institute is an education research organization led by Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education.


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