Supporting Students Facing Homelessness During COVID-19

Source: Lechenie Narkomanii on Pixabay

Every year in the United States, 4.2 million youth and young adults will experience homelessness, and 700,000 of these are on their own (without a parent or guardian). The number of youth experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in public school has been steadily rising each year, recently reaching 1,277,772 students in grades pre-K through 12.

Students experiencing homelessness are highly vulnerable to harm in a range of ways, such as being physically and sexually assaulted, suffering from a lack of access to mental health care, and more. Living with such ongoing insecurity and trauma, it can become far more difficult for homeless youth to hone social-emotional skills, attend school consistently, maintain good grades, or even just pay attention in class and learn.

The US Department of Education's Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program is available to educators and community members wishing to help vulnerable youth. I talked to the U.S. Department of Education's John McLaughlin, Ed.D., and his colleague, Heather Denny. McLaughlin serves as an education program specialist with an understanding of the many considerations and supports homeless youth need to thrive. Heather Denny joined the department last fall after serving as a homeless education state coordinator at the Montana Office of Public Instruction for 10 years. A doctoral student at Montana State University, Denny is a state coordinator for homeless education and a former local liaison. She has a master’s in guidance counseling and school administration. This post is the first of a four-part series. McLaughlin's answers follow each question below.

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on students experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, and where are we getting those data?

There are many ways that we learn about COVID-19’s impact on students experiencing homelessness. Obviously, we've all been working remotely during the pandemic, but we gather our state coordinators at least twice a year for national meetings, which focused last year on the American Rescue Plan, emergency relief for homeless youth. In the first several months of the program, we created bimonthly peer-to-peer webinars on implementing the program through our National Center for Homeless Education, operated at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Since then, state coordinators in particular have asked a lot of questions, so this gives us a sense of what's happening on the ground.

Separate from that, there are national organizations that do their own research and advocacy for children and youth experiencing homelessness. One is called SchoolHouse Connection, and it worked with the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions to conduct a survey of many school districts in the fall of 2020, the first year of the pandemic. In November of that year, they reported that many districts were seeing a drop of at least one-fourth of their count of students identified as homeless. Some of that was most likely due to the switch to remote schooling, as it was harder for staff to be in direct contact with students and their families during the pandemic. Also, some may have become disengaged, and ultimately chronically absent or dropped out. With fewer children and youth experiencing homelessness being identified by their school districts, they also may not be getting the support services they need to attend and succeed in school.

Disengagement was a huge concern for all students during remote learning. How was disengagement exacerbated by homelessness?

Some of the disengagement was because these families had less access to the Internet, or to devices to complete their coursework or homework. Most of our students identified as homeless are doubled up, which means they're staying with people who own the home or have the lease but are not the parent or guardian. Oftentimes, that means they are living in an overcrowded situation. They could be living with other family members, but not always. There’s a whole range of situations; in many cases, they may not have access to the Internet or a strong enough connection for all the people living in the house or facility. They may not have a device per child to do online schooling.

What were some things done to remedy those access problems?

Certainly, there's been a big push by states and districts to provide both Wi-Fi and MyFi hotspots and devices at least to households. Also, if there are shelters or hotels where a lot of families are experiencing homelessness, funds help make study rooms where students can work together and maybe place an adult to support them with their homework and classwork. The digital equity gap and access to the technology itself is a big issue that needs to be remedied first and foremost.

Were there obstacles other than the digital equity gap?

There's also the issue of how well a student can learn remotely when it's a reduced number of hours of instruction and reduced access to tutoring and support. Funding is designed to help support students most impacted by the pandemic, including students historically underserved—that definitely includes students experiencing homelessness. There has been some stimulus funding since the spring of 2020.

We're hearing from states and researchers that larger percentages of students are not at grade level in reading and math. States recently submitted their assessment data from the 2020–2021 school year, we’ll have more specific information on the homeless subgroup from this summer. In our monitoring when we're looking at reading and math proficiency in grades three through eight, and graduation rates in high school, they are lower than what they were prior to the pandemic in many states. Once we get the national summary data, we won't be surprised if that pattern holds throughout much of the country. Topical trend reports will be released on graduation rates and chronic absenteeism rates among students experiencing homelessness this summer.

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What were some things done to remedy those achievement problems?

These programs covered things like tutoring, summer programming, and after-school support to make up for learning loss. Also, we expect states and school districts to promote coordinating funds. For example, we might provide the transportation to an additional after-school program in the summer, or even an after-school, school-year program. Many districts are doing this. They're promoting this as a way to serve the most vulnerable at risk, meaning not only the homeless but also students with disabilities, English learners, and students in foster care and juvenile justice; homeless students are getting special attention in states and school districts, which is good to see.

Part I of IV. See Part II to keep reading.