Definition

includes individuals who are "doubled up", meaning that they are staying with friends and family out of economic necessity. The Department of Education homeless designation is cumulative for the school year, meaning that if the student was homeless for even one night of the school year, they are considered homeless for the entire school year.

Note that this count covers all students, not just those of compulsory age (including those enrolled at pre-K-only schools and adult public charter schools).

Source: OSSE's Homeless Education Program Statistics & Reports page. Older (2013-14, -15, and 16-17) data pull from the Federal Data Summary report published in December 2017 by the National Center for Homeless Education.

Data Source

Notes

This count dropped when students were all or mostly learning virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's unclear whether that drop in the data is an accurate reflection of the number of young people experiencing homelessness (inasmuch as the eviction moratorium was an effective policy), versus reflecting the challenges that young people experiencing homelessness faced with virtual learning or that educators may have faced in identifying which students were experiencing homelessness when teaching virtually.

Last Updated

2025-09