About 1.4 million homeless students are counted nationally, a number that undercounts due to tracking gaps, mobility between schools, and limited inter-agency data sharing.

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of homeless students are living in shelters, hotels, or doubling up with others, with numbers rising across urban, suburban, and rural areas in 2025.

The root cause is a worsening affordable housing crisis driven by inflation, stagnant wages, reduced public assistance after the pandemic, and insufficient McKinney-Vento funding and reach.

The McKinney-Vento Act offers transportation and support for homeless students, but per-student funding is low and potential cuts threaten effectiveness, leaving many needs unmet.

Stories from states including New York City, California, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, with personal details from Jackson, illustrate the human impact and policy gaps.

Beyond housing, challenges include transportation, school transfers, disciplinary actions, and the stigma of homelessness, all affecting long-term educational outcomes and risk of adult homelessness.

A mother, T’Roya Jackson, and her five children faced housing insecurity after lead exposure in their apartment, leading to shelter living and reliance on a housing voucher while trying to keep kids in school.

HUD data show a record 771,480 people homeless on a single night, with the largest rise among children under 18, signaling broad school impacts like higher absenteeism and declining achievement.

Locally, some areas are innovating with shelters for students and pilots paying homeless high-schoolers for engagement, but governments lean on underfunded nonprofits and patchwork programs.

Most homeless students are doubled up (over 70%), making them hard to identify and requiring teachers to play a central role in recognizing and addressing housing insecurity.