SchoolHouse Connection is a national non-profit organization working to overcome homelessness through education. We provide strategic advocacy and practical assistance in partnership with early childhood programs, schools, institutions of higher education, service providers, families, and youth.
The Issue
Child and youth homelessness is widespread and devastating – but hidden. Education can help break the cycle.
Identifying Students Experiencing Homelessness
This resource provides strategies and considerations for liaisons to ensure students are identified as soon as possible, as well as a framework for liaisons to use after a student has been identified as experiencing homelessness.
Progress and Promise: An Early Look at COVID Relief Funds for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness
This report from SchoolHouse Connection provides an early look at how some school districts across the country are using or planning to use their ARP-HCY funds to identify and serve students experiencing homelessness, as well as how state education agencies are using funds reserved for statewide activities. Based on early data, the number of school districts receiving funds for homeless students will increase more than six-fold. This means many schools that have never received specific support to respond to student homelessness will now be able to do so.
Immigrant Students Experiencing Homelessness: Liaisons’ Strategies
Four Homeless Liaisons’ Strategies to Support Immigrant and Migrant Students Experiencing Homelessness August 2022 An increasing number of families and youth are arriving in the U.S. from other countries, many without stable housing. SchoolHouse Connection recently...
Hidden Homelessness: Why Child, Youth, and Family Homelessness is a Crisis We Cannot Ignore
Through first-person storytelling, the series explores the ways in which homelessness is an equity issue that is inextricably connected to others; it is an experience that many vulnerable student groups face at disproportionate rates and intersects deeply with other national crises of mental health, academic achievement gaps, xenophobia, and the impacts of systemic racism.
Hidden Homelessness: Youth Voices is a sub-series developed by SchoolHouse Connection that highlights the often overlooked and unseen experiences that define child and youth homelessness. Under the education subtitle of federal law (the McKinney-Vento Act), the definition of homelessness includes common situations for families and youth experiencing homelessness, including living in cars, temporarily staying with others, and in “substandard housing.”
Left Out of “All In:” Children, Youth, and Families and the Federal Strategic Plan on Homelessness
This blog discusses the shortcomings of “All In” – the federal strategic plan on homelessness released by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) in December 2022.
13% Increase in Homeless Education Funding Included in Final FY2023 Funding Legislation
The U.S. Senate passed a final FY2023 omnibus appropriations bill with increases in funding for education, early care, homeless, and housing programs.
Help Homeless Youth Access Housing and Pursue Education
On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, bipartisan legislation was reintroduced in the U.S.House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to help unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness access housing and pursue their dreams of higher education. Please take one minute to contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative so that homeless youth don’t have to choose between a place to live, and the education that is their best hope of a brighter, more secure future.
Young People Explain Four Higher Education Bills
On Wednesday, May 11, SchoolHouse Connection, John Burton Advocates for Youth, and the Youth Law Center, organized a Congressional briefing in collaboration with the Offices of Representative Danny Davis and Senator Bob Casey. Senator Patty Murray was an honorary co-host. Young people with lived experience in the foster care system and with homelessness explained four higher education bills that would have a significant and positive impact on the lives and futures of young people. These young leaders also discussed the need for reform of the Chafee Education and Training Voucher Program and in the Satisfactory Academic Progress requirement for federal financial aid.
Launching a Program for Food and Housing Insecure College Students: A Step-by-Step Approach
Written by John C.S. Kepner, advisor to the College Student Basic Needs Program and Trustee Board Member of Gwynedd Mercy University (GMercyU) in suburban Philadelphia. In this blog, John describes his journey of putting together a coalition of community-based organizations to address the problem of food and housing insecurity in GMercyU.
I experienced homelessness. Lawmakers, help young Floridians like me find independence
This story originally appeared on the Miami Herald. Roxana Rodriguez-Monzon is a student at Florida International University studying public policy and service, a legislative aid with SchoolHouse Connection and a student temporary employee with non-profit Miami Homes for All.
Early Childhood
Infants are at greater risk of living in homeless shelters than any other age group in the United States. Early childhood programs prevent the harmful life-long effects of homelessness on education, health and well-being.
PreK-12
In the 2019-20 school year, public schools identified nearly 1.3 million homeless students. Schools provide basic needs, caring adults, stability, normalcy, and the skills to avoid homelessness as adults.
Higher Education
The majority of well-paying jobs created today require education beyond high school. Post-secondary attainment is increasingly necessary to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness, and live a healthy, productive life.
Unaccompanied Youth
Unaccompanied homeless youth are young people experiencing homelessness who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. 4.2 million youth and young adults experience homelessness each year.
How to Contact your McKinney-Vento Liaison
Under the McKinney-Vento Act, every local educational agency is required to designate a liaison for homeless children and youth. The local educational agency liaison coordinates services to ensure that homeless children and youths enroll in school and have the opportunity to succeed academically.
Click HERE to find the contact information of your local homeless education liaison.
Note: This contact information may change frequently due to staff turnover. If you have problems finding the right school district homeless liaison, please contact your state homeless education coordinator.