Foster care and homelessness are undoubtedly connected. Roughly half of the homeless population in the United States has spent time in foster care at some point in their lives (Johnson, 2022). According to Youth.gov, “Young people (ages 24 and under) may be the age group most at risk of becoming homeless…youth experience homelessness for a multitude of reasons, but involvement in the juvenile justice or child welfare systems, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and severe family conflicts all have been associated with increased risk of experiencing homelessness” (“Homelessness and Housing Instability". n.d.).
Teenage youth in foster care are a particularly vulnerable population. Typically, county children and youth agencies (CCYAs) experience difficulty when trying to place teenagers with foster families. Teenage foster youth often live in group homes, emergency shelters, independent living settings, and sometimes residential treatment facilities (RTFs) when appropriate. This can make it challenging to secure permanency through adoption or guardianship before they “age out.”
Youth exiting the foster care system can struggle with obtaining the resources and support necessary to transition into adulthood. According to the National Foster Youth Institute (n.d.), 20% of youth who leave the foster care system at 18 instantly become homeless, and 25% of youth experience homelessness within 4 years of leaving the foster care system. Many youth who leave foster care without a legal parent/guardian may be eligible for services under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act as homeless unaccompanied youth if still enrolled in a public school.
In U.S. public schools, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers protections for all students in the foster care system, and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act provides rights to students experiencing homelessness. It may be challenging for local education agencies (LEAs) to differentiate between whether a child is currently eligible for rights under ESSA or the McKinney-Vento Act. To do so, both LEA foster care points of contact (POCs) and homeless liaisons must be well-versed in the definitions of homelessness/unaccompanied homeless youth under the McKinney-Vento Act, as well as common foster care terminology.
When deciding whether a student is eligible under ESSA or the McKinney-Vento Act, an important first step is determining if the CCYA has legal custody of the child. In cases where the CCYA has legal custody, the child will always be considered a foster care student eligible under ESSA. Foster care students are identified by their CCYA. Normally, CCYAs send a placement notification form to the student’s school of origin (SOO) to inform the LEA of a foster care placement or change in placement, and to initiate a school placement best interest determination (BID) meeting.
If the CCYA does not have legal custody and the child temporarily resides outside their home, the child may be eligible for services under the McKinney-Vento Act. A source of confusion when differentiating between ESSA and McKinney-Vento eligibility is the fact that many homeless families can have involvement with the child welfare system without their children being placed into foster care. For example, if a child stays temporarily with another family member through an informal kinship care arrangement, the child could be eligible under the McKinney-Vento Act, not ESSA. As previously mentioned, older students may have experience in foster care and were once eligible under ESSA. Once these students leave foster care, they may be living on their own without a legal parent/guardian. Many of these students can then find themselves in potential homeless situations covered under the McKinney-Vento Act.
Ultimately, each student’s situation should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The Region 2 Office can assist LEAs when differentiating between foster care and homelessness.