Annie E. Casey Foundation – shared by the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education
Every year in the United States, more than 1.6 million young people are forced to navigate their K-12 education while experiencing homelessness, foster care, and/or incarceration.1 Though these students collectively surpass the population size of New Hampshire or Hawai‘i, they are often hidden from education discussions and decisions. These young people face extreme challenges and often endure oppressive and unsupportive system conditions that make school difficult, impeding their learning and life outcomes. These young people are disproportionately students of color, living in poverty, and often face numerous barriers to educational access, stability, and success. A Landscape Scan of Research on the K-12 Education of Young People in the United States Who Experience Foster Care, Incarceration, and/ or Homelessness builds from recommendations offered in a prior funding landscape and root cause analysis to share findings from a comprehensive review of research published between 2010 and 2024. The authors identified 400 relevant peer-reviewed articles and field produced research reports, 200 of which were analyzed directly and focused specifically on the K-12 educational experiences of young people in the U.S. experiencing homelessness and systems involvement; the research team considered 27 federal clearinghouses with studies on young people, and selected ten relevant clearinghouses to search for studies on this topic; 20 interviews and two focus groups were conducted with leading researchers from multiple disciplines.