Chronic Absence & Homelessness
This page includes information about chronic absenteeism and students experiencing homelessness. Find data insights, practical resources, and success stories to address attendance barriers, promote stability, and create supportive learning environments for students experiencing homelessness.
Millions of students are not showing up to school.
For students experiencing homelessness, school is a space of stability in otherwise turbulent lives – it is also a place of opportunity to obtain the education and skills they need to avoid homelessness as adults. Yet, amid a confluence of crises, unprecedented levels of homelessness are driving students away from their schools.
National Data Reveals a Staggering Reality
Public schools identified nearly 1.4 million children and youth experiencing homelessness in the 2022-2023 school year, a 14% increase from the previous year. Children and youth without safe, stable housing face numerous barriers to regular school attendance, including high mobility, traumatic events, and lack of transportation, clothing, hygiene products, and other basic needs. More than half (52%) of students experiencing homelessness in the 2021-2022 school year were chronically absent, a rate that is 22 percentage points higher than other students.
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Resources to Support the Attendance of Students Experiencing Homelessness
- Supporting the Attendance of Students Experiencing Homelessness. This resource shares strategies that schools, districts, and communities are implementing to help ensure that students experiencing homelessness are in school, every day.
- Reducing Chronic Absence for Students Experiencing Homelessness With ARP-HCY, EHCY, and Title I Part A Funds. This three-pager provides a comprehensive overview of strategies to reduce chronic absence among students experiencing homelessness, utilizing ARP-HCY, EHCY, and Title I Part A funds. It includes practical applications and actionable insights to address barriers to attendance, promote stability, and create supportive school environments for students experiencing homelessness.
In the video below, SchoolHouse Connection met with Kathi Sheffel, Homeless Liaison for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, where she shared the ways her team combats chronic absenteeism with their ARP-HCY funds.
Other Resources to Improve Student Attendance
Webinars
- Homelessness and Chronic Absenteeism in Rural Communities
- How Chronic Absenteeism Affects Students Experiencing Homelessness
- The Power of Relationship: How Mentorship Can Support Chronically Absent Homeless Students
- Improving School Attendance for Students Experiencing Homelessness: A Model School-Shelter Partnership
- Leveraging Chronic Absenteeism Data to Help Students Experiencing Homelessness
Blogs
- Using Chronic Absence Data to Identify and Support Students Experiencing Homelessness. By Tori Vohland, Children in Transition High School Liaison, and Jennifer Harris, Program Evaluator, at the Washoe County School District, Nevada.
- Five Questions with Sue Lenahan: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism. By Sue Lenahan, middle school teacher and McKinney-Vento liaison, Big Rapids Public Schools, Michigan.
- Five Questions with Tina Marie: How My Education Helped Me Push Through Adversity. By Tina Marie Giarla, 2011 SchoolHouse Connection Scholar and Program Director, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (MA)