A Qualitative Study of Distance Learning During COVID-19 and Students Experiencing Homelessness Across Multiple Settings

• In Event: We Are Not OK: Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study focuses on the recent shift from traditional classroom instruction to distance learning in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically examining students living under multiple homeless conditions as defined by the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The purpose of this study is to ascertain how the COVID-19 quarantine affected the academic and socio-emotional well-being of students who were homeless during the quarantine and the ways in which providers support them? The research also explores the possible use of distance learning as a way to provide highly mobile students a means of maintaining social capital, organizational capital and of facilitating a more effective transition for students when transferring from one school to another.

Author

• Mark Pierce, Southern Methodist University