School Success in Motion: Protective Factors for Academic Achievement in Homeless and Highly Mobile Children in Minneapolis

During the 1980s, the face of homelessness changed, as families with children began to use emergency shelters in the Twin Cities and across the country. In 1985, the Minnesota Department of Economic Security reported 290 dependent children with families in shelters statewide on a single night in November. A decade later, in November 1995, this number had risen more than 500% to 1,532 children. By 2005, it was 2,477. The proportion of the total sheltered homeless population in Minnesota who were children in families has risen sharply during the last two decades, increasing from 23% in 1985 to 39% in 2008. These counts of sheltered individuals did not include many other children living with families doubled up with each other in the same residence or young “sofa surfers” staying with friends. Two decades ago, it was not feasible to accurately compute the numbers of homeless children attending school during a given academic year, because records simply did not exist. However, school access was known to be a major problem for children lacking a stable home address. Many young people were not able to attend or remain in their school of origin due to residency requirements, lack of transportation, or missing records. In the 1980s, alarming data on the status of homeless children, as well as adults, motivated the U.S. Congress to enact legislation that addressed housing, health, and other needs of the nation’s homeless (see sidebar, p. 4). This federal legislation also mandated school access for homeless children and youth, while providing modest support to states for addressing educational issues for the homeless. This legislation has been amended over the School Success in Motion: Protective Factors for Academic Achievement in Homeless and Highly Mobile Children in Minneapolis