Update: Data on Students Experiencing Homelessness. Report to the Legislature

The federal McKinney-Vento Act defines homelessness broadly in an effort to provide protections and supports for students living in a variety of unstable housing situations. This ensures school stability and continued enrollment at a time when a student's nighttime residence may be constantly changing. In Washington, the number of children and youth experiencing homelessness has increased since 2001 when the McKinney-Vento Act began requiring all school districts to annually report the number of students experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in schools. In addition to the McKinney-Vento Act requirements, the Washington State Legislature passed Senate Bill 6074 in 2014. This bill aims to improve educational outcomes for children and youth experiencing homelessness by increasing student homelessness identification and establishing further data reporting requirements. Due to the COVID-19 school building closures, school districts had difficulty identifying and serving students experiencing homelessness during the 2020-21 school year. Many districts indicated that students previously enrolled under the protections of the McKinney-Vento Act did not connect to remote instruction and were not in contact with the districts during the building closure. The number of students experiencing homelessness identified and enrolled in districts declined significantly during the 2020-21 school year. Since that time, student identification improved in many districts as students returned to in-person learning in the 2021-22 school year. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) continues to support districts' identification efforts to improve data collection and reporting.