Skip to content

District homeless programs provide a coordinated web of six support categories: essential items, transportation, academic services, health supports, specialized unaccompanied-youth support, and family supports

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

Across all five study districts, homeless program staff coordinated services provided by the district program, schools, and community-based organizations. The report enumerates the categories: "Essential items. District homeless programs in our study prioritized providing students and their families with basic necessities, including food, hygiene products, clothing, shoes, and school supplies." Transportation to and from school is required by the McKinney-Vento Act; academic services include tutoring, summer programs, and post–high school planning; health supports include physicals, screenings, counseling, and safety classes; unaccompanied youth receive shelter-embedded staff and prepaid cell phones; families receive linkages to child care, counseling, and emergency funding to prevent loss of housing.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • McKinney-Vento-funded liaisons with dedicated time to provide and coordinate supports, plus partnerships with schools, shelters, food banks, medical providers, nonprofits, child welfare agencies, and housing authorities

Constraints

  • Program staff consistently described transportation as a large cost for their programs, and emergency family funding was provided only when resources and need were known

Target Learners

  • k–12 students experiencing homelessness, including unaccompanied youth and their families

Learning Goals

  • educational engagement, attendance, and academic success for students in temporary housing

Claims

  • Districts Multi Strategy Identification Undercount Homeless Students [+M]

Examples

-

Key Sources

  • Levin, S., Espinoza, D., & Griffith, M. (2022). Supporting students experiencing homelessness: District approaches to supports and funding. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/557.894
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id district-homeless-program-support-web
title District homeless programs provide a coordinated web of six support categories: essential items, transportation, academic services, health supports, specialized unaccompanied-youth support, and family supports
description Across all five study districts, homeless program staff coordinated services provided by the district program, schools, and community-based organizations.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-10
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — levin-2022

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.