Serving Students Who Are Homeless: A Resource Guide for Schools, Districts, and Educational Leaders

“Students who are homeless want to be engaged in the educational system; however, the trauma their circumstances produce and the resulting shame limit their ability to do so. Often, they get labeled as disruptive or truant. Though their external behaviors may appear to justify such identifiers, digging a bit deeper into their lived experiences often highlights traumatic incidents that warrant consideration…Teachers, social workers, psychologists, counselors, office staff, homeless liaisons, educational advocates, community partners, and administrators at the site, district, and state levels all play critical roles in creating educational spaces that encourage success for these students.” ―Excerpt from the Introduction to Serving Students Who Are Homeless

2017 Recommended Reading for District Leaders by District Administration Magazine

Schools and districts are seeing unprecedented numbers of students and families living without residential stability. Although the McKinney-Vento Act has been around for over 2 decades, many district- and site-level practitioners have a difficult time interpreting and implementing the Act’s mandates within their local contexts.

This book provides much-needed guidance to help educator and support staff support students who are homeless and highly mobile students who face significant barriers related to access and academic success. The authors employ several different strategies to help translate complex state and federal policies into effective practices. They include policy analysis, examples of successful approaches, tools for training staff, youth experiences, and address the role school districts play in serving marginalized students.

Serving Students Who Are Homeless can be used as a professional development tool at the local and district level, and as a textbook in higher education settings that prepare entry-level and advanced-credential administrators, counselors, school psychologists, and curriculum leaders.

Book Features:

• Guidance for understanding and implementing the law and tools for training staff.
• Case studies that include the voices of students, families, and practitioners.
• Questions and activities to facilitate professional development discussions.

Ronald Hallett is an associate professor in the Benerd School of Education at the University of the Pacific and a research associate for the Pullias Center at the University of Southern California. A former school teacher, he now researches the educational experiences of marginalized youth as they pursue completing high school and transitioning to college. Since 2005, he has studied the educational experiences of youth in homeless situations. In addition to publishing several articles and book chapters on the topic, he recently published a book that reflects to social context of youth and family living in doubled-up residences -- Educational Experiences of Hidden Homeless Teenagers (Routledge, 2012).
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Linda Skrla is a professor and department chair of Educational Administration and Leadership at the University of the Pacific. A former public school teacher and administrator, her research focuses on educational equity issues in school leadership, including accountability policy, high success school districts, and women superintendents. She is a past Vice President of Division A of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), former editor of Educational Administration Quarterly, and co-author or co-editor of six books, the most recent of which is Using Equity Audits in the Classroom to Reach and Teach All Students (Corwin Press, 2011).