The clock is ticking on a proposed Pennsylvania law mandating that school districts protect the federally guaranteed rights of homeless students.
The bill gained traction last year after a Center for Public Integrity investigation revealed that districts in the state locked students out of school for weeks or months while investigating their families’ claims of homelessness.
The legislation, currently under consideration in the Republican-controlled state Senate, would reverse a state law that allows schools to bar from class any students, including homeless children, during residency disputes.
Pennsylvania’s current practices are at odds with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. That federal law requires that school districts immediately enroll students experiencing housing insecurity — before, rather than after, a residency investigation — and provide them with various support services.
The state House unanimously passed the bill in November; the state Senate Education Committee did the same in March.
Before the legislation can head to the full Senate for consideration, the state Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Republican Sen. Scott Martin, must approve it. The legislative session ends in late November, giving lawmakers about six months to vote.
In a statement provided to Public Integrity, Martin’s spokesman, Jason Thompson, wrote: “As a former chair of the Senate Education Committee, and as someone who worked with families experiencing homelessness during his years working in the juvenile justice system, Senator Martin understands and appreciates the importance of ensuring continuity of education, especially for young people growing up in difficult circumstances.”
Reporting on student homelessness by Public Integrity and partner news organizations during the past 18 months has revealed deep-rooted problems, from funding disparities to uneven student discipline.
Related Investigation
The stories have shed light on the plight of homeless students and sparked changes in policies and practices.
In December 2022, Congress increased funding for homeless students by 13%, a move that came after a years-long push by advocates and a Public Integrity investigation the previous month in partnership with The Seattle Times, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist. But that’s hundreds of millions of dollars below the level many members of Congress thought was necessary.
Before the budget vote, Democratic and Republican members of Congress told Public Integrity that the federal government must do more to ensure consistent support for homeless students, among the most vulnerable children served by public schools.
In Washington state, lawmakers nearly doubled Homeless Student Stability Program funding to $9 million in 2023.
That followed reporting by Public Integrity and partner The Seattle Times about the scarce funding to help these students. With the increase, the program boosted funding for 17 districts and provided financial assistance to another 30-plus.
Investigations in the series also revealed that students experiencing housing instability face discipline in schools at rates higher than their housed peers.
In California, nearly 6% of homeless students were suspended compared to roughly 3% of all other students, a Public Integrity analysis showed.
In Washington state, students experiencing homelessness were suspended and expelled at almost three times the rate of their housed peers, The Seattle Times reported in a 2022 article. Studies in five other states have found similar results.
‘Deep-seated problems’
A Public Integrity analysis of federal education data suggests hundreds of thousands of children entitled to rights reserved for homeless students go unidentified by the school districts mandated to help them. Identification is the critical first step to providing that assistance.
The analysis found that 2,400 districts did not report having any homeless students despite levels of financial need that make those figures improbable.
And many more districts are likely undercounting the number of homeless students they do identify. In nearly half of states, tallies of student homelessness bear no relationship with poverty, a sign of just how inconsistent the identification of kids with unstable housing can be.
“You really dove into how there’s profound under-reporting for McKinney-Vento-eligible students,” said Paige Joki, an attorney with the Pennsylvania-based Education Law Center.
“What that results in is folks stating that there aren’t problems when, in reality, there are really deep-seated problems that are under-explored. … Students are really paying the price for that.”
Unhoused and Undercounted
Federal law requires that public schools assist homeless students to help break what could become an inescapable cycle of hardship. But many of the students who need that aid fall through the cracks.
In nearly every state, homeless students graduate at much lower rates. And dropping out of high school increases their risk of housing instability later in life.
While federal law urges schools to support homeless students, some districts in Pennsylvania and other states, such as Maryland and Missouri, suspect residency fraud and launch investigations when families say they don’t have a permanent home, stories by Public Integrity and reporting partners The Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio revealed.
The cases often involve students who say they are “doubled up” — the federal term for sharing a home with friends or relatives because of economic hardship or loss of housing. These children are considered homeless under McKinney-Vento.
The law mandates that schools support them by removing obstacles to those students’ education, arranging transportation to school, waiving typically required paperwork and referring families to health care and housing services.
Public Integrity’s review of dispute records and internal emails from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, conducted as part of our investigation, suggests the problem is prevalent in suburban Philadelphia schools, where many conflicts occurred. These disputes often result in prolonged student absences, causing significant disruptions to their education.
Democratic State Rep. Jeanne McNeill, the sponsor of Pennsylvania House Bill 663, introduced the legislation after a school system in the southeastern Pennsylvania area she represents barred a student from attending class and receiving special education services during a residency dispute.
The Education Law Center, which represents families in such disputes, advocated for the bill during a state hearing on student homelessness last year.
“These disputes can be quite lengthy, and that results in students being denied the instruction time that they’re legally entitled to,” Joki said in an interview with Public Integrity. “Education is a fundamental right in Pennsylvania, and this bill is a necessary step to ensure students aren’t being deprived of this right.”