Poster #99 - Students Experiencing Homelessness: Academic Achievement and Spillover Effects

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

Over 1 million students in public schools across the United States experience homelessness each year. Students experiencing homelessness may struggle with financial hardship, access to basic resources, family trauma, and abuse – all of which can inhibit success in school. On average, homeless students have lower academic performance, higher mobility, and more disciplinary incidents than their stably housed peers. However, little is known about the peer or spillover effects of homelessness in the classroom. 

In this paper, I first use a student fixed effects approach and event-study techniques to examine how the first observed homeless experience is associated with students’ academic outcomes.  I use administrative data from several school districts in a southeastern state. Next, I examine how exposure to classmates who experience homelessness affects one’s performance in school, exploiting idiosyncratic variation in the cross-cohort and within-school grade-level proportion of ever-homeless peers. I examine whether there are any non-linear spillover effects driven by exposure to different numbers of homeless peers, thereby distinguishing between the extensive and intensive margins. Additionally, I examine heterogeneity in spillover effects based on students’ own characteristics. 

Shedding light on such peer and spillover effects provides more information on the true costs of homelessness, which may extend beyond those experiencing it. The results can help school administrators and policymakers allocate resources to support students identified as experiencing homelessness, with a particular focus on early intervention. These resources could also mitigate any negative spillovers or enhance any positive effects.

Author

• Salma Mohammad Ali, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author