Advocates ask Pa. to chip in on homeless student assistance
Advocates for homeless youth are asking Pennsylvania to begin putting state money into a federally funded program that helps K-12 students who are struggling with homelessness.
The request, made by several organizations as part of National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, might be the first — but certainly will not be the last — budget request of the 2025-26 fiscal cycle.
The growing number of homeless students appearing in Pennsylvania Department of Education reports "speaks to our housing crisis in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation" and "reflects both the growing instability faced by youth and the limited resources available to support them," Rep. Gina Curry, D-Delaware County, said during a recent press conference.
The funding request was coordinated by a group of over 50 youth assistance agencies operating in Pennsylvania and centers around PDE's Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homeless (ECYEH) program . That program is designed to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which requires states to provide continuous education for homeless students.
The state's ECYEH program has historically been funded with about $5 million per year in federal funds (a $6.5 million federal pass-through is in the last state budget) that are then doled out to regional coordinators.
Many school district programs that use ECYEH funds have been bolstered in recent years by federal pandemic relief dollars, noted Joe Willard with HopePHL, a Philly-based human service agency.
But those funds are set to expire, and Willard's agency and others are now asking for the program to be supplemented by $10 million in state money — a comparatively small slice of Pennsylvania's general fund budget, which currently stands at $47.6 billion, but one which will have to compete with hundreds of other priorities in the upcoming fiscal cycle.
With roughly 46,000 homeless students in the last PDE survey, the question is "are they worth $217 to make sure they get a high school diploma?" posed Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El, D-Lancaster County.
"It's our duty to have their back," Smith-Wade-El said.
PDE's data is reflective of both the actual problem of homelessness as well as the difficulty of measuring it. Schools' counts of homeless students dropped in the 2020-21 school year, likely due to a reporting problem as COVID-19 kept students physically away from the schools where they might receive homelessness assistance.
Numbers came roaring back, however, and stood at 46,714 homeless students statewide in the 2022-23 school year, far higher than the last pre-pandemic count of 37,930 for 2019-20.
Some of the largest increases are found in counties that are home to the state's mid-size metros. Dauphin's count of homeless students grew from 1,557 in 2019-20 to 2,373 in 2022-23, and Berks' grew from 1,849 to 2,961.
"This is an every-district problem. Somewhere in the district where you live, there are students experiencing homelessness," said Doris Hagemann, Director of Student Services for Cumberland Valley School District.
Cumberland Valley is currently working with about 80 homeless students, Hagemann said, although that number varies seasonally; PDE's last official count had the district at 136.
The primary goal of school districts and support agencies is to keep students attending the same school, even if their living situation is in flux. While some students are living in shelters, most are in "couch surfing" situations, staying with friends or relatives for brief periods.
Schools can draw on ECYEH funds for many purposes: helping homeless students get mental health assistance, phones to keep in touch with teachers and counselors, even do their laundry.
"We're trying to level the playing field so these kiddos have the same chance" as students with stable housing, Hagemann said.
Most importantly, the funds can help with transportation. The best way to ensure homeless students graduate is to keep them attending the same institution they were initially enrolled in, even if they're frequently moving, but this can be a logistical nightmare.
Homeless students often stay with friends or relatives outside the district or even in another county, Hagemann said, and districts coordinate with each other to help transport their transient student populations. Students who enter the shelter system are typically staying at shelters in Harrisburg, Carlisle, or even Shippensburg, and have to be bused into Cumberland Valley.
"Getting kids transported is one of the biggest hurdles," Hagemann said. "Once we have them at school, we can work magic."
Wednesday was the last session day of 2024 for both the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the state Senate. The legislature will return in January, and Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to roll out his 2025-26 budget proposal in February.
