Abstract
The Department of Education’s (ED) definition of homelessness in-cludes any child who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) uses a narrower definition that excludes doubled-up families. These definitions determine how resources are prioritized for families, yet we know very little about the differences in risks faced by children identified by these departments. We leverage a data linkage between public schools and homeless management information systems in Minnesota to provide novel evidence on the educational risks faced by children identified as homeless by ED and HUD. We find that ED-identified-homeless and HUD-identified-homeless children experience comparable increases in chronic absenteeism and school instability in the year they experience homelessness, challenging the popular conception that doubled-up families face lower educational risks. Using these findings, we discuss strategies to integrate homelessness data better, assess needs, and prioritize resources for children experiencing homelessness.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 581-616 |
Number of pages | 36 |
Journal | Social Service Review |
Volume | 96 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Financial support for this research was provided by the University of Minnesota through the Grand Challenges Research Initiative, Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the Metropolitan Consortium. This project was completed as part of a research fellowship made possible by the Homework Starts with Home Research Partnership and the Minnesota Linking Information for Kids project (Minn-LInK) at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare. The authors would like to thank the leadership, staff, partners, and other fellows of the Homework Starts with Home Research Partnership. In particular, we thank Ann Masten, Eric Grumdahl, Kristy Piescher, Danielle Dupuis, Misty Blue, Joe Curiel, Michelle Englund, Britt Heinz-Amborn, Max Herzberg, Sahoon Hong, Sun-Kyung Lee, Weston Merrick, Nicole Mickelson, and Alyssa Palmer. We also thank Anna Gassman-Pines, Marcos Rangel, and Laura Stilwell for comments on earlier drafts that greatly improved earlier drafts of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published by The University of Chicago.