Identifying Children Experiencing Homelessness for Early Care and Education

• In Event: 1-124 - Responding to family homelessness: Efforts to protect development and promote resilience in early childhood

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Data on young children’s housing status are limited and unreliable (Bires et al., 2018). Differences in data collection methods across federal agencies make it difficult to provide accurate estimates of the proportion of children 0-5 experiencing homelessness in the US (see Table 1). This makes providing care and services to families experiencing homelessness challenging. However, we know that high-quality early care and education (ECE) can help children overcome some of the negative effects homelessness has on their development and well-being (Valdez-Bain, 2017).
Purpose. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to understand how states and communities use data to identify these families and (2) to explore promising practices and challenges around data used to identify and reach families experiencing homelessness.
Study population. Key respondents were interviewed from agencies at the state, or local level within a set of six selected states and communities to further explore the data sources they use to identify families experiencing homelessness, and to provide examples of how states and communities are supporting the enrollment of families experiencing homelessness in ECE. Key informants were interviewed from the following states/communities: Idaho, Los Angeles, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C.
Methods. Two researchers interviewed the key respondents in winter 2018. A total of 17 interviews were completed with four types of key informants. The interviews took approximately one hour to complete, and the interviewer scribed the interviewees’ responses. One researcher coded the ECE and early childhood community and school-based program protocols and the other coded the subsidy and housing protocols. To ensure reliability of the codes, researchers worked together to summarize data and identify key themes on four of the interviews. After the initial themes were identified, the research team developed codes by consensus. The research team then audited each other’s code application for 10% of the interviews. Key themes were then compared across respondent types.
Results. Across communities, respondents reported limitations to the ECE and housing data sources they use to identify families experiencing homelessness. Despite recent efforts to prioritize young children experiencing homelessness for high-quality ECE, respondents reported that neither the ECE systems nor the housing system are adequately identifying and providing outreach to families experiencing homelessness. Respondents discussed concerns around the lack of a shared definition of homelessness across agencies. These definitional differences affect agencies’ understanding of who is and is eligible to receive services. This is especially the case for families living doubled up. In fact, all respondents reported difficulty with integrating families living doubled up into their service system, even those relying on the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness. There were also misconceptions concerning which agency is collecting the “best” data on children 0-5, and who is responsible for this data collection. Respondents indicated that focusing on data sharing and collaboration across systems would improve the quality of data on young children’s housing status. By developing a clear picture of this population, states and communities can develop practices and resources to better address the early learning needs of this extremely vulnerable population.

Authors

• Sara Shaw, Child Trends
  Presenting Author

• Ashley Hirilall, Child Trends
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tamara Gail Halle, Child Trends
  Non-Presenting Author