Reducing Student Absenteeism
Category: Student Learning
There is limited empirical evidence about educational interventions for students experiencing homelessness, who experience distinct disadvantages compared to their low-income peers. We explore how two school staffing interventions in New York City shaped attendance outcomes of students experiencing homelessness using administrative records from 2013-2022 and a difference-in-differences estimator. We find suggestive evidence that an intervention that placed social workers in schools to serve students experiencing homelessness is associated with a 1.2 percentage point increase in average attendance rates of students in shelter. We discuss this small association relative to program costs and implications for education policies targeting homeless students.
Keywords
counseling/student services, educational policy, educational equity
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/6qdq-vv37
