Dive Brief:
- The education sector should collaborate more closely with housing, health and community systems to address barriers to homeless students' learning, according to a series of reports released by the University of California, Los Angeles Center for the Transformation of Schools.
- The reports analyzed trends in student homelessness in four Western states: Arizona, California, Utah and Nevada. Researchers found that while student homelessness rates vary, "the consistency of the educational disparities across states" shows housing instability is closely related to students’ attendance, performance and outcomes.
- State and local leaders should strengthen and standardize homeless student identification, improve data collection and reporting, coordinate sectors that help the homeless student population, address racial and geographic disparities, and expand transportation, academic, attendance and school-stability supports, the reports said.
Dive Insight:
“Across these four states, we see different trends in the number of students identified as experiencing homelessness, but a remarkably consistent pattern in what housing instability means for a student’s education,” said Mayra Cazares-Minero, a research analyst at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and lead author of the reports, in a Sept. 29 statement.
In addition to identifying homeless students, Cazares-Minero said schools and communities need to sustain support for students to keep them stable, engaged and on track in their academics.
The reports found that nearly 300,000 California students experienced homelessness in 2024-25, reaching a record high in the state. That same school year marked a 4% increase compared to the previous year and was 10% above the pre-pandemic peak in 2018–19.
Black/African American and Native American/Alaska Native students were also more likely to be homeless in California, the UCLA report said.
About 1 in 3 students experiencing homelessness in California was chronically absent in 2024-25, compared with roughly 1 in 5 housed students.
A separate report released by SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan in September found about 1 in 29 infants and toddlers experienced homelessness in 2023-24, and fewer than 1 in 10 were confirmed to have reached an early childhood program.
That report suggested increasing access to early childhood development programs and support services, as well as integrating healthcare and housing services, to better help homeless children access them.
