Pennsylvania’s ECYEH (Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness) Awareness Week, November 11-15, 2024, brings awareness to the importance of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance, a federal law that guarantees educational rights and services for children and youth experiencing homelessness. The law requires local educational agencies to ensure that homeless students have access to the same free, appropriate public education as other children and youth and requires states and school districts to remove barriers to enrollment and school retention for homeless students.
The term “homeless children and youth” means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including:
· Children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailers parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency transitional shelters; or are abandoned at hospitals;
· Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
· Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
· Migratory children who are living in circumstances described above.
During the 2022–2023 school year, in Pennsylvania:
46,714 children and youth were identified as experiencing homelessness;
86% of identified children and youth were enrolled in school;
80% of students remained in their school of origin;
69% of students were "doubled up", 19% were in shelters or transitional housing, 10% were in hotels or motels, and 2% were unsheltered.