Without improvements to the current COVID-19 relief bill moving through the House, very little aid, if any, is likely to reach the 1.5 million students experiencing homelessness. The education package contains nearly $130 billion for K-12 education, with a press release declaring that the bill was a “clear message” to the American people that help was on the way. Regrettably, the message to students experiencing homelessness, clearly, is that help is not on the way.

The bill does call on states and local educational agencies to reserve small portions of their funds to address the “disproportionate impact of the coronavirus”…

The following is a guest blog written by Bréyon Austin, Pro Bono Coordinator at Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco, on how she turned her pain in 2020 into triumph — from being homeless in high school to achieving her lifelong goal of becoming an attorney. To read more guest blogs, click here.

I’ve always known I wanted to be an attorney. My mom used to say I decided that at age seven and stuck with it. …

Recently, SchoolHouse Connection published our 2020 Year-in-Review — a collection of the year’s highlights and top resources — accomplished in collaboration with our many incredible partners and youth scholars, who have helped shape our advocacy and support of children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness during an unprecedented year of challenges. The Year in Review spans federal and state policy accomplishments, notable media moments, youth leadership and voices, and more — as well as the most popular webinars, resources, guest blog posts, newsletters, and research.

Read a message from the SchoolHouse Connection team below, and check out the full Year-in-Review.

As…

420,000.

Based on a new report from SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, that’s how many fewer children and youth experiencing homelessness have been identified and enrolled by schools so far this school year — despite evidence of increasing homelessness and proactive, tenacious efforts by school district homeless liaisons.

Did you know 32% of high school students experiencing homelessness are Latinx? This means that a Latinx high school student is 1.7 times more likely to be homeless than a white student. As National Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close, SchoolHouse Connection believes it’s vital that Latinx students know their educational rights, and how to access help.

To that end, we’re proud to unveil a new dedicated resource page entirely in Spanish — including fact sheets, flyers, and videos to support children and youth experiencing homelessness, from birth through higher education. …

Navigating homelessness as an individual can trigger an unimaginable level of trauma and challenges that no one should experience; navigating homelessness as a parent brings about its own additional challenges and complexities, all of which have been worsened by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, SchoolHouse Connection connected with four mothers from across the country to share their unique parental perspectives.

Read on to hear more about the challenges facing parents and their children who are navigating homelessness during the COVID-19 era; the assistance they have found thus far, and the support they still need, but have not…

Earlier this year, public schools and early childhood programs reported the highest number of children and youth experiencing homelessness ever recorded — 1.5 million. This number is skyrocketing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is one home that all youth and children have in common: school.

In the midst of the current crisis, the role of schools has never been more critical — no matter where classrooms are this fall. Schools are required to identify, enroll, and serve homeless children and youth, but distance learning and other COVID-related complications mean it is easier than ever for them to fall through…

The following is an excerpt from Charlotte Kinzley, a McKinney-Vento liaison for Minneapolis Public Schools. In this piece, she introduces Minneapolis’ Stable Homes Stable Schools (SHSS) partnership and shares promising outcomes they’ve seen as a result. The full article is up on SchoolHouse Connection’s website HERE.

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) identifies around 2,500 students who are experiencing homelessness every year. Minneapolis sits in Hennepin County, Minnesota, which has a strong homeless response system for families and a high number of emergency shelter beds compared to other counties both locally and nationally. Hennepin County is also one of the very few…