Survey of Attendance Practices
Category: Student Well-Being
A substantial number of U.S. students experience homelessness, yet our understanding of how homelessness shapes student outcomes is limited. We use seven years of longitudinal data on Indiana students in kindergarten through eighth grade, including more than 40,000 students who experienced homelessness, to examine the associations between homelessness and academic and behavioral outcomes. Our data indicate that Black and low-income students are more likely to experience homelessness and for longer periods. Student fixed-effects models indicate that cumulative years of homelessness are associated with lower math and ELA achievement, as well as increased disciplinary incidents and absences. These associations are particularly pronounced for male, White, and middle school students, suggesting that in the context of homelessness, being male, White, and in older grades may function as risk factors for more adverse outcomes. Together, our findings underscore heterogeneous links between homelessness and adverse outcomes across student subgroups.
Keywords
student homelessness, academic achievement, school discipline, attendance
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/7vv0-x268
