Head Start and Early Head Start reach more young children experiencing homelessness than any other federal early childhood program. In the 2024-2025 program year, programs served 60,221 children experiencing homelessness. These children made up 6.98 percent of Head Start enrollment and 9.5 percent of Early Head Start enrollment, the highest shares recorded in the Program Information Report.

Head Start programs reach these children in part because the Head Start Program Performance Standards require staff – and give staff tools – to find them, enroll them quickly, and keep them enrolled when families move. Those requirements and tools appear in the standards on community assessment, recruitment, eligibility, selection, enrollment, attendance, partnerships, and transitions. Staff should use them to remove the barriers that most often keep families experiencing homelessness out of early childhood programs: missing documents, high mobility, no transportation, and no clear point of contact.

This brief pairs each requirement with practices that programs across the country use to carry out the performance standards on homelessness. Program directors, ERSEA coordinators, family services staff, and education staff can use it for staff training, policy review, or self-assessment.

Start with the definition

45 CFR §1305.2

What the standards require

Practices that work

Head Start uses the definition of homelessness in section 725(2) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the same definition that public schools use. Children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence meet the definition. That includes children who are: — Sharing the housing of others because of loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason, often described as “doubled-up.” — Staying in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or campgrounds because no adequate alternative is available. — Staying in emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, or transitional shelters. — Sleeping in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar places.

— Train every staff member, not only enrollment staff. Bus drivers, front office staff, teachers, and home visitors are often the first to learn that a family has lost housing. SHC’s overview of the definition and signs of homelessness works well for a short staff meeting. — Give staff one question they can apply without a manual: can the child return to the same safe, adequate place to sleep every night? — Use phrases like “experiencing homelessness” or “in transition” on outreach materials, questionnaires, and enrollment forms. Words like “homeless” and “residency” keep many families from identifying themselves. — List the qualifying living situations on the form itself so that families recognize their own circumstances without having to name them.

Know who is in your community 

45 CFR §1302.11(b)(1)(i), (b)(2)

What the standards require

Practices that work

Programs must conduct a community assessment at least once over the five-year grant period, and that assessment must use data that include children experiencing homelessness, developed in collaboration with McKinney-Vento local educational agency liaisons to the extent possible. Programs must also review and update the assessment annually to reflect significant changes, including rates of family and child homelessness.

— Request the local educational agency’s (LEA) McKinney-Vento data from the district liaison, including counts of children under six who are siblings of enrolled students. LEAs identify many families whom Head Start programs never see. — Add Continuum of Care and Homeless Management Information System data to estimate the number of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in shelter. — Survey shelters and transitional housing programs about what prevents families from enrolling, such as transportation, documentation, or program hours. — Build a resource map of emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, motels used for emergency housing, food banks, housing agencies, and mental health providers in the service area. — Write the homelessness findings into the assessment narrative, because selection criteria and recruitment plans draw directly on them.

Recruit where families are

45 CFR §1302.13

What the standards require

Practices that work

Programs must develop and implement a recruitment process that actively informs all families with eligible children in the recruitment area about the availability of services and assists them in applying. Recruitment must include specific efforts to locate and recruit vulnerable children, including children experiencing homelessness and children in foster care.

— Place flyers and posters at emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, motels, drop-in centers, food distribution sites, laundromats, libraries, and affordable housing complexes. — Attend community resource fairs, shelter family nights, and homeless services provider meetings. — Create a standing referral pathway with the school district homeless liaison so that preschool-age siblings of identified students are referred directly to the program. — Offer materials in multiple languages and in plain visual formats, and include a phone number or text line that a family can reach without an address.

Determine and verify eligibility without creating barriers

45 CFR §1302.12(c)(iii), (d)(2), (h), (i)(3)

What the standards require

Practices that work

Children who meet the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness are categorically eligible for Head Start and Early Head Start. Families do not need to prove income. A program’s policies and procedures cannot require documents confirming a child’s age if that requirement creates a barrier to enrollment. The standards also give programs wide latitude on verification. To verify that a family is experiencing homelessness, a program may accept a written statement from a homeless services provider, school personnel, or another service agency; documentation from a public or private agency; a family declaration; information gathered on enrollment or application forms; notes from a staff interview; or any other document that establishes homelessness. When a family cannot provide any of these documents, a program may accept the family’s signed declaration, as long as program staff describe the child’s living situation in a written statement. A program that enrolls participants who are not categorically eligible, with family incomes between 100 and 130 percent of the poverty line, must report to the regional office how it is meeting the needs of low-income families, families experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care, and must include local demographic data on these populations along with its enrollment policies and procedures.

— Use a short housing questionnaire that asks about the family’s current living situation in a respectful way. The Office of Head Start Decision-Making Tool to Determine a Family’s Homelessness Situation provides a useful template. — Train enrollment staff to apply the definition themselves rather than routing every question to a supervisor, which slows enrollment. — Ask the school district homeless liaison to confirm eligibility for families already identified by the school district, with the family’s consent. — Record the verification steps taken and the basis for the eligibility determination in the child’s file, including who provided the statement and when. — Enroll the child first, then help the family gather documents. Nothing in the standards requires a complete file before a child starts.

Prioritize in the selection process

45 CFR §1302.14(a)(1)

What the standards require

Practices that work

Programs must annually establish selection criteria that weigh the prioritization of participants based on community needs identified in the community assessment, including whether a child is experiencing homelessness or is in foster care.

— Use a point-based selection matrix that assigns weight to homelessness, foster care status, income, disability, and other risk factors identified in the community assessment. — Set the weight high enough to matter. A single point in a fifty-point system is not effective prioritization. — Include family services staff who work with families experiencing homelessness on the selection committee. — Write down why each selection decision was made, so that families, the governing body, and monitors can follow the process. — Review the criteria annually against the updated community assessment, and share them with shelters and the district liaison so that partners know how referrals are treated.

Enroll quickly and keep children enrolled

45 CFR §1302.15(b)(3), (c), (e)

What the standards require

Practices that work

When a program serves children experiencing homelessness or children in foster care, it must make efforts to maintain the child’s enrollment when the family moves to a different service area, or transition the child to a program in the new area, according to the family’s needs. A program that identifies families experiencing homelessness through its community assessment may reserve one or more enrollment slots for pregnant women, children experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care, to be filled when a vacancy occurs. No more than 3 percent of a program’s funded enrollment slots may be reserved. A reserved slot that is not filled within 30 days becomes vacant and must then be filled within 30 days. Programs must comply with state immunization enrollment and attendance requirements, with an exception for children experiencing homelessness.

— Hold enrollment meetings where families already are, including shelters, motels, community centers, resource fairs, and virtual sessions, so that a family without transportation is not asked to travel to an office. — Keep tablets or mobile hotspots available for families completing forms, and accept photographs of documents. — Assign one staff member to help the family obtain birth certificates and immunization records, and build relationships with vital records offices and clinics that can expedite them. — Accept temporary contact information at enrollment, collect a second contact who will know where the family goes, and confirm contact information at every family meeting. — Decide in advance whether the program will reserve slots, state the decision in written enrollment policies, and identify who tracks the 30-day timeline. — When a family moves, ask first whether the child can stay. A move across a service area line does not require withdrawal, and the standards direct programs to make efforts to maintain enrollment.

Support attendance

45 CFR §1302.16(c)(1), (c)(2)

What the standards require

Practices that work

Programs must allow children experiencing homelessness to attend for up to 90 days – or as long as state licensing allows – without immunization and other records, giving families reasonable time to produce the documents. When a child experiencing homelessness cannot attend regularly because the family lacks transportation to and from the program facility, the program must use community resources, where possible, to provide transportation for the child.

— Flag absences of children experiencing homelessness for same-day outreach. Families who miss two days in a row may have moved or lost transportation. — Offer transportation support through bus passes, gas cards, rideshare accounts, carpool matching, or pickup from a shelter or motel rather than a fixed stop. — Coordinate with the school district liaison, who arranges McKinney-Vento transportation for school-age siblings and may be able to align routes or share vendors. — Ask families directly what is getting in the way. Shelter curfews, appointment schedules, job shifts, and care for siblings account for most missed days. — Track the 90-day window as a support timeline rather than a deadline, and tell families plainly that the child can attend while records are being gathered.

Build effective partnerships

45 CFR §1302.53(a)(2)(vi)

What the standards require

Practices that work

Programs must establish collaborative relationships and partnerships with community organizations, which may include housing assistance agencies, providers of support for children and families experiencing homelessness, and the local educational agency liaison designated under the McKinney-Vento Act.

— Develop a memorandum of understanding with the school district, or add homelessness provisions to an existing agreement, covering referrals, data sharing, joint training, and transportation. — Name a single point of contact in the program for shelters and the district liaison, and give partners a direct phone number. — Hold joint training with district staff, shelter staff, and child care resource and referral agencies, so that every system uses the same definition. — Meet with partners twice a year to review referral counts and identify where families are being lost between systems.

Support transitions

45 CFR §1302.72(a)

What the standards require

Practices that work

For families and children moving out of the community where they are currently served, including families experiencing homelessness and children in foster care, programs must undertake efforts to support effective transitions to other Early Head Start or Head Start programs. When Early Head Start or Head Start is not available, the program should help the family identify another early childhood program that meets their needs.

— Prepare a transition packet in advance that holds enrollment records, developmental screenings, health records, and the eligibility determination, ready to send with the family’s consent. — Call the receiving program directly rather than waiting for a records request. — Coordinate with the district liaison on kindergarten enrollment and transportation, since the same family will need both. — Host a joint meeting with the family and the receiving teacher when timing allows, in person or by phone.

How to Get Started

Programs that want to review current practice can begin with six questions:

• Can every staff member state the definition of homelessness and name one thing to do when a family meets it?
• Does the enrollment form ask about the family’s living situation in words a family will recognize?
• Do the written selection criteria give real weight to homelessness?
• Can a child experiencing homelessness start attending the same week the family applies?
• Does the program know the name and phone number of the McKinney-Vento liaison in each district it serves?
• When a family moves, does the program know who follows up and what gets sent?