Early Childhood
Higher Education
IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
Title I, Part A

NAEHCY Full-length Publications

The BEAM is a monthly newsletter offering articles on the implementation of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and related legislation, best practices, research, policy, and legislation.The newsletter presents reports from educators and service providers in the field, as well as resources from national experts.
Visit The BEAM webpage.

The economic downturn has forced more families and youth to lose their footing, falling downward into the spiral of homelessness and jeopardizing children and youth’s educational success. At the same time, a one-time increase in federal funding for school-based efforts to identify and support homeless children and youth has enabled more school districts to provide more assistance. The ability of schools to continue to provide this assistance, however, hinges on current budget decisions. This brief summarizes recent federal data, as well as findings from a national survey of school districts and state departments of education.
Download A Critical Moment: Child and Youth Homelessness in Our Nation's Schools.

Largely due to the economic and housing crises, many school districts across the country report increases in the number of homeless students in the classroom. The Economic Crisis Hits Home presents the results of a survey of local homeless education liaisons conducted by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) and First Focus between October 24 and December 10, 2008. Based on these findings, the report also presents policy recommendations for the new Administration and Congress, as well as practice recommendations for schools and community agencies.
Download The Economic Crisis Hits Home: The Unfolding Increase In Child and Youth Homelessness.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA; 20 USC §1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Specifically, FERPA prohibits a school from disclosing personally identifiable information from students’ education records without the consent of a parent or eligible student, unless an exception to FERPA’s general consent rule applies. This NAEHCY document seeks to explain FERPA’s basic provisions and how schools can protect homeless children and youth while sharing educational information appropriately.
Download FERPA and Homelessness: A Technical Assistance Tool.

Refreshed and revised, this useful resource provides practical and technical guidance to homeless education liaisons and advocates. A detailed index has also been added.
Download Frequently Asked Questions on the Education Rights of Children and Youth in Homeless Situations.

This publication provides a step-by-step guide and practical tools to create four different temporary housing models for unaccompanied youth: host homes; group homes; independent living; and emergency shelters. The steps are designed to give readers tools to establish these programs in their communities and include sample youth applications, host home applications, powers of attorney, parental consent forms, confidentiality notices, job descriptions, posters, flyers, Power Point presentations, data collection tools, and other useful forms and documents.
Visit the Housing + High School = Success webpage.

Attending school and securing lawful status in the United States are two keys to safety and security for undocumented unaccompanied homeless youth. This brief, co-authored by NAEHCY and Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), is designed for young people, immigration attorneys and advocates, McKinney-Vento liaisons, and other educators. It provides information about federal laws that provide the means for undocumented unaccompanied youth who are homeless to attend school and address their immigration status.
Download Immigration and Schools: Supporting Success for Undocumented Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the release of its 2010 Notice of Funding Availability for the Homeless Assistance Programs that it administers. As a result of the passage of the HEARTH Act, there are four new requirements for HUD-funded homeless service programs related to education. These requirements, and suggestions for implementing them, are described in this NAEHCY document.
Download Strategies for Implementing New HUD Homeless Assistance Requirements to Collaborate with Schools.

This report presents seven principles for educational success for unaccompanied youth and detailed, practical strategies to implement those principles in schools and communities. Distilled from interviews with over one hundred NAEHCY members from across the country, each principle is based on what we know as educators and advocates dedicated to the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness: that to confront the educational challenges of unaccompanied young people, we must confront homelessness.
Download Using What We Know: Supporting the Education of Unaccompanied Homeless Youth.