California is Creating New Data Resources to Improve Support for Homeless Students
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State education leaders who are champions for data- and evidence-use significantly impact the way their state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) serve students. These leaders are better positioned to:
- Deeply understand their students’ needs;
- Identify, share, and use evidence-based strategies; and
- Create a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
Results for America’s State Education Fellowship brings together state senior evaluation and program leaders who are these very champions. Fellows are education leaders who are focused on accelerating the generation and use of data, investing in what works and making evidence-based policymaking the new normal in education.
Education leaders from California know that it is hard to address needs that you cannot see; in California’s case, the state had little visibility into their homeless students’ experiences. Through the State Education Fellowship, the California team created new data resources designed to equip state and district leaders to understand and serve homeless students. We asked the California team to share how these new resources are generating new conversations about aligning resources to needs, as well as new partnerships that will translate into consistent and comprehensive services for students.
What challenge did California face that the team decided to focus on through RFA’s State Education Fellowship?
Homeless youth and students are a vulnerable population making up three percent of California’s students (2020–21 Census data). The California Department of Education (CDE) and California’s educators are committed to ensuring that homeless youth receive an equitable education, identifying and removing barriers to identification, enrollment and retention in school. Recently, an audit alerted the Department that California’s local education agencies (LEAs) may be either under-identifying or under-reporting homeless children and youth.
Identifying homeless youth is challenging. Doing so requires the LEA and their homeless liaison to coordinate with various entities to find these families and report them. However, there is a high rate of turnover of homeless liaisons and new staff are not always equipped with the resources, tools, and training to access and interpret homeless data.
At the same time, the CDE knew that data literacy among LEAs’ homeless liaisons was limited. The Department received consistent data-related questions and requests from LEAs, other governmental agencies, and reporters regarding how to find and understand California’s data on homeless youth.
With potentially incomplete data about homeless youth and limited statewide capacity to access and understand that data, the state faced challenges in decision-making and resource allocation that would adequately address homeless students’ needs.
What was the solution to this challenge?
To meet their commitment to equitably serve California’s homeless youth and students, California began investing in multilayered, long-term efforts to improve the quality of the state’s data and stakeholders’ ability to use and understand that data.
California began this work by making sure they had the internal structures in place to support change. The Department hired a full-time homeless data steward whose time is dedicated entirely to working with the internal Homeless Education Program team. This new data steward set about making California’s homeless youth data more accessible through their new Homeless Student Data web page. This new resource allows LEAs and their liaisons to go to one location to view all data pertaining to homeless students. California will soon add to this page a Homeless Geographic Information Systems (GIS) heat map that identifies homeless student needs that are unique across rural, urban and suburban areas. The Department is now partnering with County Offices of Education (COEs) to offer ongoing data training webinars that foster data literacy statewide.
Finally, the Department created an annual Under-Identifying Homeless Youth Report, which identifies LEAs that may be under-identifying their homeless youth by comparing reported data to free and reduced-price lunch data. Department staff use this report internally to provide targeted technical assistance and to identify which LEAs they may select for a federal program monitoring review.
How is this work impacting the state of California?
Identification is key to the education of a homeless student. Once a homeless student is identified, then they are ensured specific rights, supports, and protections as it relates to the success of their education career. If homeless students are not identified, then those rights and supports are not provided and they have a greater chance of dropping out of school.
Under the direction of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, California has committed to ensuring that homeless students are identified and do receive the support and resources they need to be successful.
Improving homeless student data literacy and increasing access to information means that LEAs and their homeless liaisons are better equipped to identify and report data on homeless children and youth. Additionally, LEAs, Department staff and other organizations know how to locate local and statewide homeless data, use that data to better understand homeless students’ needs, and measure the success of homeless student support programs. All of these improvements can lead to more targeted resource allocation and can increase program effectiveness, ultimately supporting homeless students’ success.
What did the California team learn from this effort?
Collaboration is the key to the work that the CDE is doing to support students. Throughout the process of building up the state’s capacity to use homeless student data, Department staff saw the value of consistent outreach to partners and the value of using a combination of communication tools to share information.
The creation of the Homeless Education Technical Assistance Centers are a prime example of the way in which the state’s efforts to work collaboratively will exponentially increase their ability to support homeless students. Working with three COEs to generate resources, training and support for LEAs and their homeless liaisons, the Department found that, together, they could overcome obstacles more effectively. Additionally, forging these partnerships allows the Department to lead by example as they encourage LEAs to meet and connect with one another to share ideas and lessons learned.
As they continue their long-term commitment to supporting homeless students, the Department is taking the lessons learned about collaboration and moving them beyond the education sector. The State of California’s Housing Agency hosts a Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS). The HDIS uses Housing and Urban development data to take action on preventing, reducing and ending homelessness in California. The CDE now aims to work collaboratively with HDIS to build relationships, share ideas and ultimately extend the impact of their joint efforts to support homeless students and families in California.
Check out more fellowship successes with Kentucky, Ohio, and Oklahoma’s solutions. To learn more about CDE’s work, Results for America, or how to become a Fellow, contact Results for America’s Director of Education Policy Implementation Heather Boughton.
